Could be nav kit - I understand they use off the shelf GPS, but I recall when GW1 occurred and when the bombs started dropping in the wrong place it was because the maps provided by the Saudis were all in the local geodetic datum and the GR1 kit was hard wired for Europe - and where are the joins on their UTM/MGRS maps? We learnt a lot from that about OOA ops, one wonders if the Russians have the same sort of problems. Assuming they were even provided with charts - I imagine the Syrians don't have a fully operating ordnance service available these days.
The surviving Russian crew member also states they, "knew the area like the back of their hands", after a couple of weeks? I would suggest they didn't even know the Turkish territory salient existed - and he didn't at the time when giving his press statement.
Last edited by ORAC; 25th Nov 2015 at 20:28.