Ilyushin IL-38

As The Aviationist referred back to the IL-38 used in a film with US insignia to simulate a P-3, it jogged my memory that I never resolved why the IL-38 71-RED was at Sherman-Grayson, TX in 1995. I don't think Open Skies is the reason.

Il-38 brightened.jpg

My friend who took the photo said
...wandering around Texas on 27 April 1995 heading up to Oklahoma called in at Sherman-Grayson to catch up with the Express One Maintenance facility and look at a load of stored airliners on the field. Found an IL38 May sitting outside an unmarked hanger. Coded Red 71. As it was late in the day, and the sun was behind the aircraft we went into the hanger to ask if we could take photographs from airside where the sun was on the aircraft. (In hindsight not the best thing maybe) We were told by three guys, none of which could hold there left arm by their side, No and we were trespassing and should leave immediately. However we did take some photos from the road, which of course is public land...

The aircraft appears to be back in Russia now so it can't have been appropriated for Foreign Materiel Exploitation or the like

According to another friend ....at the time although it had Russian Navy titles it was apparently operated by an organisation called 'OAO NIIS'. No idea who they are or what they do. The Open Skies function in Russia is assigned to the Air Force so it wouldn't have been carried out by a Navy MarPat/ASW aircraft, and as you say the aircraft involved always carry 'Open Skies' titles anyway.

71 red has been stored at St.Petersburg/Pushkin since at least 2007, still present in October last year and parked with 77 red right next to the ARZ20 hangar used for Il-18 family rework. It is c/n 082011207 and the 7x red sequence of codes in recent times has been used by 289 OSAP based at Nikolaevka. 77 red is due for upgrade to Il-38N so it could be that 71 red will be next.

If anyone out there knows why the aircraft was in Texas in 1995, I'd be delighted to know!
 
OAO NIIS might be this company (OAO just means Joint Stock Company, roughly):

https://www.openweb.ru/7816033155-oao-niis
My sneaking suspicion would be that this plane had some sort of sensor that might have been useful for geophysical research (oil exploration). 1995 was sort of a Wild West era for Russian companies and the Russian military -- I could easily believe that a Russian company looking to make money in the US might be able to "borrow" a Russian military aircraft.

I would be careful assuming that the RED 71 in this picture is necessarily the same as the RED 71 currently stored in St Petersburg. Soviet "bort" (side) numbers like this were not static or unique like US tailcodes; they did change from time to time and could repeat on different aircraft in different units.
 
Using their MAD boom to detect mineral deposits? I think P-3s were used in Afghanistan for the same role.
 
May be speculative but this makes a lot more sense, especially as Sherman was home to the IL-78 tanker that was touted around. I get that it may not be the same airframe as the 71red at Pushkin. Maybe it’s still at Sherman? Anyhow, thanks guys
 
NIIS means Научно-Исследовательский Институт Системотехники, or Scientific Research Institute of Systems Engineering. It was an old Soviet research institution converted in 1993 into a for-profit company, same way as many others. It main field of work lied in the development of naval and aerial radio-electronic search systems. Russian versions of MAD booms, SLARs, etc. They operated airplanes for test purposes, this was presumably one of them. This company also developed the Morskoy zmey (Sea Dragon) radar/TV/MAD system, used on the Il-38. NIIS bankrupted in 2018.
 
Spongthrush said:
May be speculative but this makes a lot more sense, especially as Sherman was home to the IL-78 tanker that was touted around. I get that it may not be the same airframe as the 71red at Pushkin. Maybe it’s still at Sherman? Anyhow, thanks guys
Click to expand...
i've seen the 71 Red in Pushkin this summer, its possible that they've done slight changes (adding russian eagle over the tail tricolor) to it and not just completely abandon it in Sherman
 
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