Fleet upgrades and new sources of income wanted (230 words)

Published: 8/14/2000

The Belarussian air force continues to have problems according to its commander, Mikhail Stremous. Talking to the local press recently, he said that the air force's fleet, including Su-27s, MiG-29s and Su-25s, had already achieved half of its service life, with the majority of the fleet built in the 1980s. The air force is looking at undertaking, in collaboration with MiG, the upgrade of some of its 65 MiG-29s at its maintenance plant at Baranovichi. Stremous believes that if the programme proves to be successful, it could provide a valuable source of revenue as a service to be provided to third parties. The air force has already sold some of its aircraft to other air forces, although one particular sale to Algeria of MiG-29s was seen by Vasily Pankov, Director General of Sokol, as simply a means of depriving the Russian producers of a direct sale and margin, as the aircraft were being supplied on preferential rates to the Belarus. The suspicion however, is that the air force benefited little from the transaction with the funds flowing to aggressive Belarussian export agencies. Stremous also proposed that the air force would look increasingly at other means of generating income such as offering transport service and specialist support in areas such as fire fighting to other states.

Article ID: 1990