Putin’s only aircraft carrier which marauded through the English Channel on its way to unleash hell on Aleppo FLOPS after ‘jets couldn’t takeoff‘
'No working catapult to launch warplanes and pilots not trained to land or takeoff from deck'
RUSSIA’S aircraft carrier that caused a storm when it sailed past the White Cliffs of Dover on its way to the Syrian coast has turned out to be a national embarrassment.
It sailed amid a giant eight-ship convoy in September, steaming through the 21 mile-wide neck of the Channel in October as RAF Hercules reconnaissance planes flew overhead.
But alas, the fleet's only aircraft Admiral Kuznetsov seems to be floating FAILURE.
Satellite imagery published in Jane's Defence Weekly shows eight Russian Su-33 aircraft and one MiG-29 jet parked the Kremlin’s Humaymin air base in Latakia province, western Syria.
These aircraft are usually take off from the deck of the ageing aircraft carrier which was built in 1982 but had a re-fit in 2015.
Igor Sutyagin, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute said the lack of a catapult system to launch the planes has hampered the ability of pilots to operate at sea.
This has forced them to carry fewer weapons and less fuel when they take-off from a specially built ramp.
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It is also thought only a small number of Russian pilots have been trained to take-off or land on a carrier.
In a humiliating blow for Russia’s propaganda machine, one of the MiG-29s crashed into the sea on November 14.
The pilot ejected safely.
According to Jane's Defense Weekly, reports at the time suggest the jet was unable to land on the carrier.
But the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed to an “equipment fault during an approach for deck landing”.
A source told The Times that Russian naval chiefs switched their jets to land “when they discovered they were a bit s*** at flying from sea”.
It not just the high seas that has proving Russian shortcomings.
Last night a Russian cargo ship on its way to the International Space Station exploded shortly after it was launched.
The loss of the spacecraft is a blow to Russian pride in their resurgent space programme.
But proud Putin's engineers have now unveiled a space robot it hopes will help conquer the Moon.
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