MINSK: The crews of Belarusian and Russian Su-30SM fighters conducted their first joint air patrol of the Union State's borders this year, the Defense Ministry of Belarus reported on Wednesday.
"The Belarusian and Russian pilots flying Su-30SM multirole fighters conducted their first joint air patrol of the Union State’s borders this year. The pilots spent 120 minutes in the air, covering a distance of over 1,150 km during their patrol," the ministry said in a statement.
Early in December last year, the Belarusian Defense Ministry reported that in 2022 Belarus and Russia would continue accomplishing joint air defense combat alert missions and air patrols of the Union State’s borders. Earlier, Russian Tu-160 and Tu-22M3 long-range bombers also took part in the joint air patrols.