Two new forklifts, as well as drills, wrenches, grass trimmers and other tools crowdfunded by the Russian public have been delivered to the Russian Air Force, a major Russian aviation blog has reported.
According to Fighterbomber blog’s Telegram channel, which is allegedly run by a retired Russian Aerospace forces pilot, the forklifts were bought by two people and were named “Tatyana” and “SV” in their honor.
“Now it is going to be several times faster, easier and simpler to load bombs and missiles,” Fighterbomber explains.
In addition to the tools, the public also donated medkits, radios, torches and other kinds of hardware. Photographs attached to the post show the equipment lined up in front of several aircraft such as Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers, Su-25 attack aircraft, Mi-28 and Ka-52 attack helicopters.
“The people and the army are one,” Fighterbomber concludes.
The blog posted a call to raise funds for the forklifts on May 31, 2022. In it, the author described delivering crowdfunded radios to the pilots.
“So! Friends! In less-than-legal ways, which I am not going to disclose, we got our hands on 113 aviation radios and transferred them to attacking units.”
Fighterbomber continues: “But today the time came to help the force without which neither the airplanes nor the helicopters can fly. And the one that almost always remains in the shadow of the medals, the glory and the public love. Our engineers.”
“Day in day out they are preparing the airplanes and the helicopters for combat sorties, patching up the holes, changing the engines, loading bombs and rockets. It is a titanic work without a right for a mistake. A lot, if not everything, depends on them [the engineers – AeroTime]. Of course, they have to buy the equipment for their own money, because the equipment that is provided to them is a topic for a separate post,” Fighterbomber adds.
The blog goes on to call for the donation of screwdrivers, angle grinders, trimmers, wrenches and other equipment. It emphasizes that the engineers specifically need forklifts, as the hydraulic lifts currently used by engineers is “an especially sophisticated torture”.
Since the start or Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, numerous campaigns to provide Russian forces with equipment have been run in the country.
It has been noted that Russian servicemen often use commercially sold drones, communications equipment and weapon attachments such as scopes and grips. Much of this equipment has been crowdsourced, as the post by Fighterbomber shows.