The 166th’s third squadron was entirely staffed by pilots drafted from the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation and Navy (DOSAAF). They completed their conversion at Krasnovodsk AB, in 1973, but the regiment was declared operational only two years later, while deployed at Sandar AB, outside Marneuli, in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. By then, it began receiving improved Su-15TM interceptors. Even then, the armament of this variant was still limited to a pair of R-98 air-to-air missiles. This jet, ‘Red 30’ was the Su-15TM flown by Captain Valentin Kulyapin during the fateful intercept that resulted in him ramming the Canadair CL-44D coded LV-JTN of the Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense, on 18 July 1981. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)