Russian MiG-29 Strizhi (Swifts) Display Team

The Strizhi (Swifts) are a Soviet and later Russian aerobatic performance demonstrator team connected with the Russian Air Force.

In July 1983 the 234 Guards Fighter Regiment based in Kubinka air base was among the first regular aviation regiments to receive 4th generation fighters Mig-29. Regiment started tailoring a team of military pilots, boasting perfect aerobatic techniques, to carry out demonstration flights on Mig-29s in the mid-1980s, when the Air Force was just embarking on mastering aircraft of this type. Military pilots, headed by Lieutenant Colonel A.N. Kutuzov, an Honorary Military Pilot of Russia, were tasked with perfecting aerobatics in a formation of six aircraft sometimes spaced three metres apart.

The team is considered to have officially been established on May 6, 1991, when it carried out demonstration flights under the name of Swifts or Strizhi (Russian: Стрижи) for the first time. After the show Air Marshal Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub personally decorated pilots of the aerobatic team with medals “For Strengthening Combat Commonwealth Between States”