Description

The Sukhoi Su-35 (NATO Reporting name: Flanker-M) is twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed and built by Sukhoi Design Bureau. The works on this aircraft started during the soviet times under the designator SU-27M, but with the dissolution of USSR, Russia slowly re-worked this project as SU-35. Russia claims the aircraft to be 4++ generation, with some elements from the 5thgeneration. Thrust-nozzle vectoring engines, great combat power, impressive flight range and high maneuverability speeds – are all the elements that Russia claims its Sukhoi has. However, Ukrainian Defense forces have shown a different perspective to the most overhyped 4th generation aircraft in the world. The piece in your hands belong to a Sukhoi Su-35S – a standard Russian Air Force fitted aircraft, with the ‘S’ meaning – ‘Stroyevoy’ (Combat). The aircraft was battling Ukrainian Air Defence in Kherson Region, near the village of Shlyakhove, that’s where the aircraft met its fate and was downed.  First footage of this ‘unique’ wreckage emerged in the beginning of February 2023, and our team quickly got to the site to salvage the remains of the aircraft and examine ‘Flanker-M’ closely. The serial number of the aircraft was established – 07614. Yet, the number does not freely come up in the internet search and is not know to Fuselage Creations sources. This brings us to the summary, that the aircraft was part of a batch delivered in the year of 2020 or later, making this aircraft one of the newest aircraft lost by Russia in its war in Ukraine!

The hunt for the Red Flanker

The beginning of this story take routes in the fall of 2022, when Ukrainian Armed Forces conducted a successful counter offensive in southern Ukraine and de-occupied part of Kherson region and the city itself which is saturated on the left back of Dnipro river. With the liberation of the region, many losses of the Russian occupied forces have been discovered, one such is the pride of Russian Air Force – The Sukhoi 35S, Flanker-E.

The story of this Flanker has its own mystery, the actual identity of the aircraft. The aim of this article is to combine all the evidence and facts that evaluated when hunting for the identity of this Flanker. We begin the search with a firm identification of the manufacturers serial number, the MSN:07614.  Using the Russian sources, we quickly established that the serial number falls in the batch which was destined to be built and delivered as part of the Russian MoD contract for 2020. A total of 10 frames were delivered that year, and their MSN’s were 07-13 to 07-20, 08-01 and 08-02. However, this information is from internet forum sources and given the secrecy of the subject, this is the best lead of what we began investigating.

 There are a few articles dated in 2020 about transfer of the Flanker-E to Russian Air Force. Four jets, have been delivered in February of 2020 to the aerobatic team ‘Russian Knights’. Their MSN’s however, were 07104, 07105, 07206 and 07410, all wearing the unique livery of the aerobatic team – we can safely eliminate those.   Another known delivery was 07816 (RF-95612, 11 Red) seen in Lipetsk, 4th Centre for Combat Employment and Retraining of Air Force Personnel – eliminating this training airframe. However, additionally it was established that two more airframes were delivered to Lipetsk, the RF-95910 (10 Red) and RF-95911 (08 Red). Yet, we managed to eliminate the 10 Red, as the aircraft appears in videos from russia after the downing of the aircraft in our possession.  The next lead took us to the 23rd Interceptor Aviation Regiment (IAP) based in Dzemgi, located in Komsomolsk-na-Amure (same city as the aircraft in question is being built) which took delivery of three frames that year. Registration of one is unknown, but we know its military identification 03 Red, next one being RF-95909 (07 Red) the other one is RF-95915 (35 Red).

Based on this information, the list of potential bearers of the MSN 07614 are:

 1 Unknown ‘RF’, 03 Red, 23rd IAP

 2 RF-95909, 07 Red, 23rd IAP

 3 RF-95915, 35 Red, 23rd IAP

4 RF-95911, 08 Red, 4 TSBP

All these candidates were the bearers of the correct livery to the one found at wreckage site. Yet, the above list is not complete, and there could be more variants based on currently unknown identification’s.  To summarize, an interesting discovery came to light from the Russian propaganda, the pilot which ejected, served at Lipetsk training center. However, we are leaning toward ‘909’ of the 23rd IAP, which was factory fitted with the pylons for electronic counter measure pod’s, which were found on the wings of our aircraft.