Slovakia to Sign €100 Million Contract With Russia for Servicing MiG-29 Fleet

Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini announced on June 5th that his country intended to sign a contract with Russia for the servicing of the Air Force’s MiG-29 fleet worth €100 million. The signing could be expected to take place “in the next few days,” according to a statement by the Slovak leader when addressing reporters following a series of Russian-Slovak talks in Moscow. Slovakia remains one of the few remaining operators of significant quantities of Soviet aerial warfare systems in Europe alongside Bulgaria, Belarus and others. The NATO member state currently operates 12 MiG-29 fighters of the early A and UB variants, which were manufactured in the 1980s by the Soviet Union, alongside S-300PS long range surface to air missile system. MiG-29 fighters in the Slovak fleet have not been modernised to a comparable standard to advanced post-Soviet variants, and are unable to operate advanced long range air to air missiles such as the R-77 which limits their air to air combat potential. This combined with relatively limited sensors, which while advanced for their time are increasingly considered out of date today, has forced Slovakia to choose between investing heavily in upgrading the MiG-29 fleet and acquiring new fighters. Bulgaria has faced a similar decision, and while also sending its MiG-29s to Russia for servicing it has begun to consider acquiring new combat jets to replace them.

Although the Slovak Air Force's familiarity with the design would make acquisition of a more advanced variant of the fighter such as the MiG-29M or MiG-29SMT ideal, or even the MiG-29’s heavily enhanced derivative the MiG-35, the country’s membership in NATO and alignment with the Western Bloc makes such a course of action highly unlikely. NATO member Turkey’s recent reprimand for acquiring Russian air defence systems serves as a powerful warning to other members not to step out of line with the alliance’s goal of undermining Russia’s defence sector - with Ankara threatened with economic sanctions and a termination of its membership in key weapons programs. As such, Slovakia signed a contract to acquire 14 American F-16V ‘4+ generation’ light fighters from the U.S. under a $1.8 billion contract, a costly fighter unfamiliar to its Air Force which will require a thorough retraining of pilots, full refurbishing of maintenance infrastructure and significant changes to airbases to accommodate. Although the F-16V is considerably less capable than the MiG-35 in its combat performance, it represents an upgrade over the ageing MiG-29A which though more manoeuvrable, faster and higher flying leaves much to be desired in its sensors, electronics and beyond visual range engagement capabilities.