Report: Russia to supply Syria with powerful MiG fighter jets
The speedy MiG-31E can fire simultaneously at several targets up to 180 kilometers away.
By News Agencies Tags: Russia Syria Israel newsA Russian newspaper is reporting that Russia has a contract to provide Syria with powerful MiG fighter jets but has not begun delivering the planes.
Kommersant cited the head of Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fyodorov, as saying a 2007 contract to sell MiG-31E interceptor fighters to Syria has not entered into force.
The paper said Russian arms sales officials have denied such a contract exists.
The speedy MiG-31E can fire simultaneously at several targets up to 180kilometers (over 110 miles) away. Deliveries to Syria would anger Israel.
Kommersant cited Fyodorov as saying a contract to provide Syria with Mig-29M fighters is being implemented.
State arms sales company Rosoboronexport declined to comment on the report.
In May, Reuters cited a Kommersant report that claimed Russia halted plans to sell MIG-31 fighter jets to Syria because of pressure from Israel.
In 2007, Russia agreed to supply Syria with eight MiG-31 fighters, known in the West by NATO codename Foxhound, for about $400-$500 million, the paper said.
Kommersant, a commerce-oriented newspaper published in Russia, quoted an unidentified person close to Russia's state arms exporter as saying that Moscow had halted the contract due to pressure from Israel.
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
afaid of their shadows keep crying to the world, help us with more of this and that.
The speedy MiG-31E can fire simultaneously at several targets up to 180kilometers (over 110 miles) away. Israel is not big enough for this capability. Syria plans against its Arab neighbours
All this banging on about how good are israeli pilots,they are expert at terrorising unarmed civilians but never faced a credible opposition.Would have been interesting to see how good they were if Johnson hadn't stopped the US airmen when they were trying to sink the USS Liberty, which was virtually an unarmed target. Robbo
This change the balance of power, Israeli planes now will be in danger when bombing civilian targets! It amounts to declaration of war; we need to bomb them before they arrive!
at the expense of the American taxpayers. Israel has no purchasing power with the Russians since that would require money. After all Israel lives on donations and I don't think Medvedev is that generouly foolish. Salaam/Shalom
and thus this nonsense. The Russians have though been providing Syria with the Pantsyr-S1 air defense missile system, the BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system and that should do it against any Israeli provocative over flights. It was a great misstake to fly over the presidential palace, but you knew that already.
No problems, Jet fighters need pilots, and that Russia can't sell to Siria. Our Pilots flying a cesna are better pilots than the Sirian flying a Mig 31.
DT is correct. US war games during the Cold War proved this. The US Air Force put its pilots in captured Soviet MIGs and gamed them against USAF planes piloted by USAF pilots. The MIGs won. This was because the cheaper Soviet planes let the Red (Soviet) team fly more planes than the Blue (US) team.
How can Syria afford such expensive toys? Russia must be heavily subsidizing any sales. Syria probably would be better off buying advanced air defense systems.
... to see if Syria can park these planes where they would not be noticed in satellite images. Perhaps in underground bunkers constructed without being noticed in satellite images? When it comes time to take them out, perhaps Syria will have 3 minutes. $500 million better spent on Damascus water supply problem.
To say this would be destabilizing is an understatement. At minimum, Israel should put a hold on its delivery of drones to Russia. Israel should also consider submitting its own order for these planes. Not only are they a lot cheaper than the US F-35 (which won't be delivered for many years) but they also allow Israel to closely examine its capabilities to better defeat an enemy flying them. As a bonus, it sends a message to the US that Israel is not without other sources.
What is Russia doing? Do they want to see a Final Solution on Israel? Lieberman has to confront them about this head on. Without Russia supplying arms to the Islamist-Jihadist states, entities and terrorists in the region, there would not be a Middle East conflict.
Naturally, delivery of such an aircraft to Syria will anger Israel, since Israel can only attack states that do not have the means to defend themselves.
It does not matter how good the MIG-31E's are it is the pilots that count
Where is Syria coming up with the dough to pay for all this hardware? Does anybody doubt what I'm obviously thinking? Could it possibly be that short stinky guy driving the pink car that's going to cover the losses when they trash this stuff one day?
What pressure????? Anyway, once the Mig 31 are delivered to Syria, who is going to fly them? Syrian pilots? What pilots?
Good news. Israel can now use the web to lure Syrian pilots to bring one of the hot new migs fresh from the oven to Israel in exchange for 5 million dollars cash , a free villa in Sderot, and a lifetime pass to Betar Yerushalayem games, and we share the technology with the US.