OUR generally dependable defencewire website quotes government sources to have confirmed that the Mig-29 deal is off. Obviously someone in the government apparatus can still think straight and that has obviously resulted in the Mig 29 madness from continuing.
Sri Lanka already has all the gizmos it needs to deal with the warts and stinks it needs to get rid of soon. The F7s in the SLAF inventory are formidable assets and have proven themselves in action. Upgrading the existing fleet of Kfir precision attack craft and the work horse Mig27s makes a whole lot of sense at this time as well.
The Mig29 deal was known to have been a pet project of the present Commander of the SLAF, who obviously has thought it through into the next decade. Nevertheless, it will have to wait, given ground and economic realities.
Sorry Roshan, no more hotrod toys, go play with what you have..
Related article; http://defencewire.blogspot.com/2008/10/q-with-defencewire.html
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12 comments:
i thought you said they had already arrived ??? confusion here
There were conflicting reports for a while and even some so called 'eye witnesses'. The people pushing for the Migs were the powerful faction whereas a few ragtags like us bloggers and other independent minded folks opposed this deal, on the common sense basis that it was not really needed.
If the newest reports that the Migs deal has been abandoned is true (who knows) that should be a good move. Looks like common sense and economics won.
Tropicalstorm........I agree with u on most of your comments.....but to say that this was commanders pet project is absured ........MIG 29 is a good aircraft for us on the longrun........affordability is a differant matter... if we had Kfirs and 27s and hinds in the mid 80s with the right mix we may not have had most of these war losses we experianced up to 2001........If the 29s were offered to the SLAF by the Def Ministry ....with the future and the presant requirements in mind ,its an ideal conversion come 2010..........so anyone stating from Cmdr ,DAE, DOPS to the rank and file would love to have this aircraft in its fleet.........for god sake evan Zimbabwe has these birds.....
Foxtrot
The SLAF Commander has a vision and is known to have pursued the Mig29 with a lot of conviction.
Anyhow, the Mig29 lacks any real combat testing. The Indians out-performed USAF F16 fighter jocks at the Top Gun range with a few of their Mig29s, but other than that there's really nothing to place our bets on.
Even more worryingly, not even the Russians are known to have deployed their Mig29s in the recent war in Georgia. Instead they mostly used Sukhois.
Personally I am glad this has been shelved, if the story is true.
n arms dealing scandal in Russia looks set to upset the international
weapons trading career of Joe Modise, the former minister of defence at the
centre of the controversial R43,8-billion arms procurement deal.
Modise, along with deceased former minister of foreign affairs Alfred Nzo, is listed as a director of Marvol Management (SA) by the Registrar of Companies in Pretoria. His business partner in Marvol is a controversial former Russian citizen with close links to the former KGB.
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Foxtrot
We had the Kfirs by 1993.
In fact they were being test flown in K'nayake when the Central bank bomb went off.
The difference is in training, and not the equipment. During the CFA, the US and India realized it was going to end up where it is now. Only Norway was trying to paint a different picture. That was when the US provided specialized training to our forces to take it on and deal with it when it happens.
The rest, like they say, is history.
Tropicalstorm........
We had opperational F7s in 1993 .......a pet jet project of AM Terry Gunawardena....... but only a few pilots were trained to fly it and they were mostly the ones on the ladder .......In your words The Kfir was a pet project of ACM Oliver Ranasinghe backed by his DOPS Jayalath Weerakkody who asumed the commandership in early 1994 ....The latter succeeded him in 1998 and went for the 27 and the upgraded Kfir C7s due to the crisis after the Jayasikuru debacle, again to add more punch to attack capability and lower maintenance costs....true the kfirs may have been test flown by January 31st 20006 when the Central Bank bomb went off......the aircraft you are refering to in the early 1993 is the 3 Pucara's and the F7s we got to add more punch to the Siai Marchchettis we used with utter dissapointment during the seige of the Jaffna Fort............The Kfir at that time was percieved to be highly expencive ,useless and too advanced for the basic need we had in counter insurgency opperations.......
The vission of the Commander is to prepare his men and machines to be able to face the threats of the future enemies way ahead in time.........while ofcorse maintaining the advantage on the currant war effort , so therefore the pet project of the presant commander is very much in line with his vission and good for the SLAF ......but the funding is the job of the politicians and the Treasury secretary............I surgest please use my ETF/EPF moneys if you need funding but dont take it to keep budjet airlines afloat..........!!!!!
If we had the Kfirs or at least a few F-7s in 1987......may be the famous parippu drop may have never happened .............afterall they did stop the sea opperation half way when the SLN confronted them !!!!!
You are absolutely correct. It is only from strength that security flows. Singapore, Taiwan and even Cuba are clear examples.
The Indians know that any interference in SL today in the form of a ground assault would be their unending nightmare and they will never win. That is an underlying factor, combined with the sneaky feeling that the Sri Lankan tamils are after all not pro-Indian, but pro-themselves, while they would also be the base for Tamilnadu Indians turning violently that way.
India only has plenty to lose, nothing to gain in a divided SL. They learnt it the hard way, but seem to have learnt it well.
Foxtrot
You seem to have a lot of information and a nice writing style. If you have any articles worth publishing, please email to tstorm2007@gmail.com
My current involvements are making it very difficult to find time to update the site these days.
Thanks Tstorm ...roger that.....sure will if there is anything good....
Cheers
YF
In Wikipedia, if you search for Sri Lanka Air Force and check the Air Craft Inventory, it lists the 5MIG 29. Therefore according to Wikipedia, we already have MIG 29.
Sanjaya
Wikipedia....at times may get it wrong as the information is not cross checked.......it may have been overlooked.......If you read carefully.........you may note that it does not mention anything about the Y-8s we used to have before the missile threat came up ....one of which got blown up while dropping those 1000 KG crude bombs over Iyakachchi.........
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