Test pilots at Kirovske

The idea dated from 1992, when two Ukrainian MiG-29s, a 9-13 and a two-seat UB, toured Canada and the United States for the first anniversary of independence and were nicknamed the “Ukrainian Tridents” by the aviation press. One of the pilots, test pilot Colonel Viktor Rososhanskyi, had watched the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels and wanted a similar team at home. In the autumn of 1995 the decision was taken to form it at Kirovske in eastern Crimea, on the flight-test complex of the State Aviation Research and Test Centre. Its first pilots were all experienced test pilots: Rososhanskyi as commander, with Serhii Dudkin, Pavlo Korolov, Serhii Kovalov, Volodymyr Toponar and Eduard Sotnikov.

Fairford and the home season

Training began on L-39C trainers in 1996, moving to MiG-29s that summer; during a barrel roll practice two aircraft touched, one losing part of a wing and the other part of its fin, but both landed. The four-ship first displayed during the exercise Serpen-96 in August 1996. The team flew five MiG-29 9-13s and a MiG-29UB, repainted at the Zaporizhzhia repair plant in a blue and yellow scheme with white. On 9 May 1997 it displayed over Chaika airfield near Kyiv, in July it made its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, and in August it flew at Sevastopol for Navy Day and at the Independence Day parade in Kyiv.

Losses and the last flight

On 26 March 1998, as fog and a crosswind closed in on Kirovske during training, Colonel Dudkin was killed landing MiG-29 number 107. Mykhailo Lampik and Ihor Ovchinnikov replaced him in the six. In June 2001 the team flew at Izmir for the 90th anniversary of the Turkish Air Force, and in September it flew two displays in one day, at Kremenchuk and Poltava. Its last flight came on 5 October 2001 near Saky, in memory of the Russian naval aviator Timur Apakidze. In July 2002 two team pilots, Toponar and Yuri Yehorov, were flying the Su-27UB that crashed into the crowd at Sknyliv, Lviv, killing 77 people. With Rososhanskyi retired and fuel and spares scarce, the team was disbanded in 2002.

Revival plans and an afterlife in combat

President Yushchenko called for the team to be restored in 2008, and three MiG-29s flew in a similar scheme at the 2009 Independence Day parade, flown by squadron pilots. In 2011 five L-39s were painted in team colours for an anniversary parade that was cancelled, and no team followed. The stored team MiG-29s were moved to Kulbakino in 2014 and returned to service; one in the old display livery was filmed fully armed over the Donbas in April 2014, and in October 2022 another former team aircraft was lost while intercepting Iranian-made drones.