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On February 9th, The Chief of The General Staff of Serbian and Montenegrin Armed Forces,
General Ljubisha Jokich, announced that the his country will definitely overhaul and
modernize its five MiG-29 fighters (four single-seat MiG-29 Fulcrum-A and one
two-seat MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B) in Russia. He revealed that the project for overhaul and modernization
of Serbian-Montenegrin MiG-29s is planned to be performed in two phases. The initial phase,
that is expected to begin soon, will include sending two MiG-29 jets to Russia, which will
return to Serbia and Montenegro in about eight months. Following the completing of overhaul
and modernization on the initial two aircraft, the second batch of aircraft, comprising the
remaining three MiG-29s and one An-26 Curl transport plane, are going to be sent to Russia.
According to General Jokich, the work on the second batch will be completed in
six months.
Speaking about his country's plans about MiG-29 fighters, General Ljubisha Jokich said that the
level of modernization of the best Serbian-Montenegrin fighters is still part of the
negotiations with the Russians. However, he was quite precise in claiming that around
40 percent of the work will be performed by Serbian-Montenegrin Air Force Institute
Moma Stanojlovic. On January 19, Serbia and Montenegro Minister of Defence,
Zoran Stankovic, revealed that his Ministry has secured 10 million Euros for the planned
overhaul and modernization of Serbian-Montenegrin fleet of five MiG-29 fighters, as well
as for overhaul of one An-26 Curl transport plane. He did not explain what kind of
modernization is planned for the MiG-29 fighters but it is believed that it will be very
limited, equipping the planes with NATO/ICAO-compatible communication, navigation and
identification equipment, required for participation on NATO/Partnership for Peace (PfP)
exercises.
A number of Serbian media agencies have recently announced that the overhaul of Serbian and Montenegrin
Air Force MiG-29 fighters is one of the highest priorities of Serbian-Montenegrin Ministry of
Defence and is scheduled to begin during 2006. The reports suggest that all five MiG-29s have
been recently inspected by Russian specialists at their home base at Batajnica. The RSK-MiG
specialists have completed in-depth analyses of the Fulcrums that have survived the
NATO-intervention in 1999 and now Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Defence is waiting for
the official Russian proposal on the cost of returning these jets into service. The proposal should
be based on the provision of most of the MiG-29s overhaul work to be carried out at Serbia-Montenegro's
Air Force Institute Moma Stanojlovic located at Batajnica air base, some 20 km
north-west of Belgrade. The Government in Belgrade believes that the MiG-29 overhaul could be
a good chance for restoring the once very prospective Air Force Institute and keeping it alive
until Serbia and Montenegro joins NATO and EU when this facility could become increasingly
more interesting for US and European aviation industry.
According to well-informed Serbian sources, apart from the overhaul issue, the Serbia and
Montenegro Ministry of Defence will also receive offers from RSK MiG for supplying the
Serbian-Montenegrin Air Force with additional second-hand MiG-29 fighters, as well as for
upgrading the current Serbian-Montenegrin MiG-29s to a more advanced standard, thought it
is hard to believe that the Ministry of Defence could afford money for such investments because of
its poor budget. Instead, it is more realistic to expect that Serbia will only opt for overhaul and
return into service of its five MiG-29 that have officially ceased flying on April 1,
2004. In the future it may be possible that additional MiG-29s will be purchased
or received as donation from a friendly country. The idea is again to put into
full-strength the Serbian-Montenegrin Air Force's only MiG-29 unit, the 127th Lovacka
Avijacijska Eskadrila Vitezovi (127th Fighter Aviation Squadron Knights) of the 204.
Lovacko Avijacijski Puk (204th Fighter Aviation Regiment) operating within the Korpus
Protiv-Vazdusne Odbrane (Air Defence Corps).
The Knights have lost 11 MiG-29s (ten single-seat MiG-29 Fulcrum-A and one two-seat
MiG-29UB Fulcrum-B) in the air and on the ground during 1999 when, because of the crisis
in the south Serbian province of Kosovo, Yugoslavia came under NATO attack during
Operation Allied Force. However, Serbia and Montenegro is now seriously considering
to increase the number of operational MiG-29s in line with its intentions to provide
its own air defence as well as to fulfill overall international obligation to participate
in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) exercises as a step forward to future full-member
status within NATO. \"Slovenia pays Italy 60 million Euro a year to guard its sky, and its
territory is several times smaller than ours. So you should multiply this sum by three or
four to see how much it would cost us to have our skies defended by someone else?s air force\",
204th Fighter Aviation Regiment Commander, Colonel Nebojsa Dzukanovic said. He believes it
would cost about 20 million Euro to overhaul the five available MiG-29 fighter planes, in
order to, at least for a time, enable efficient control of the country's airspace, in line
with the overall international obligation. Colonel Djukanovic also reveals that due to the
lack of airworthy aircraft and jet fuel, fighter pilots log less than 10 hours of flying
per year, which may create problems to Serbia and Montenegro and prevents it from
participating in the PfP and NATO programs requiring at least 150 hours per year.
In line with expected-to-begin Russian overhaul of Serbian-Montenegrin MiG-29s, that all
have been bought by former Yugoslavia back in 1987, Serbian media recently revealed that
a contract has been signed in 1997 with unidentified Belarusian company for overhaul of
two MiG-29s. Reportedly, the realization of this contract failed due to political reasons.
Also, it has been now confirmed that in 2003 Russia has offered Serbia and Montenegro
overhaul of its MiG-29s to be paid by compensating the Russian debt to Belgrade. At that
time, this option was considered unnecessary investment by Belgrade and was promptly
rejected. Now, the MiG-29 overhaul is again on the table, thought this time Belgrade
could be asked to pay for it.
Most experts in Belgrade believe that keeping the MiG-29s in service is far better
solution than investing in the old and less-effective MiG-21 fighters. Moreover, they
are convinced that MiG-29 days are anyway counted and in the foreseeable future Serbia
and Montenegro will need to initiate process of replacement of Soviet-era fighters with
some more-advanced multi-role Western-built aircraft.
Source:
IGOR BOZINOVSKI
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