By 1974, all pilots of 166 regiment were retrained to Su-15 ‘Flagon’ aircraft. In 1975, the young pilots of the 3rd Squadron became the second-class pilot, then in 1976, they became the first-class pilot. Every year, the pilots did shooting practice at the 116th or 18th Air Defense Training Center. They were shooting with a gun on a land target at the Poil shooting range, 45 km south of Marneuli. In the mid-1970s, the Su-15 was equipped already with two R-60 ‘AA-8 Aphid’ short-range lightweight infrared homing air-to-air missile rockets too. A complex aerobatic flight was forbidden with a totally armed Su-15 (Two R-98, two R-60 missiles and a gun container) until 1980, due to the possible deformation of the aircraft's fuselage.
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