폴란드와 슬로바키아, 우크라이나에 MiG-29 지원

[위종민]

폴란드가 MiG-29 12기를 우크라이나에 지원한다고 발표했네요. 4기는 수일 내 지원이 가능하다고 합니다. 

이 펄크럼은 애초 동독 공군에서 운용하다가 2002년 폴란드가 독일에서 구매한 기체라고 하네요. 폴란드는 MiG-29A 22기, MiG-29UB 6기 28기를 보유중이지만, 독일에서 넘어온 항공기는 근대화개량 및 수명연장이 안 된 기체라고 합니다. 근대화개량된 기체들은 우크라이나로 지원되지 않을 것 같다고 합니다.  

슬로바키아 역시 폴란드의 발표 이후 13기의 펄크럼을 우크라이나에 지원할 예정이라고 발표했습니다. 그 외 2K12 KUB 방공시스템도 지원한다고 합니다.  

https://breakingdefense.com/2023/03/ukraine-gets-its-fighter-jets-polish-mig-29s-to-arrive-within-days/

Ukraine gets its fighter jets: Polish MiG-29s to arrive within ‘days’

Aaron Mehta

5-6 minutes

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A Polish MiG-29 flies over Lithuania during a NATO mission in 2015. (Bartosz Glowacki/staff)

WARSAW — Polish President Andrzej Duda today announced plans to send a dozen old Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, four of which are set to arrive in the coming days.

The announcement represents a major first for Kyiv, which has been calling for nations to send them fighter jets — Western-made or older Soviet-era kit — since the early days of Russia’s invasion. But nations have been reluctant, due to a combination of escalation concerns and fears over not having enough airpower for their own national defense.

“In the coming days we will pass four planes full ready to service,” Dude said while talking with Czech President Petr Pavel. “The others are being serviced, prepared and will probably be successively transmitted. Duda added that “we have a dozen or so these MiGs at the moment” that are functional and still used to protect Polish airspace, but “these are the last years” they will be able to operate.

According to Rzeczpospolita daily, Duda specifically said the jets being sent are part of the MiG-29 bought by Poland from Germany in 2002, for the symbolic price of a single Euro. These aircraft were originally in use by the East German air force.

Dude’s statement about “days” was surprising, as only two days ago Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the Polish MiG-29 transfer to Ukraine “ could be done in four to six weeks”.

Moreover earlier the head of the President of the Republic of Poland Paweł Szrot said: “As for the transfer of Polish MiG-29 to Ukraine, it will not be a large number. I just remind you that will certainly not be a number corresponding to the number of tanks, neither the older ex-Soviet or even Leopards. We will certainly do it in some wider international coalition, so that Ukraine can feel the support of more real.”

Poland has been the most vocal nation calling for jets to be sent to Kyiv’s aid — and almost a year ago exactly claimed it had an agreement in place to send its MiG-29 fleets to Ukraine with the US sending older F-16 fighters as Polish backfill. However, that announcement was met with confusion in Washington where no such agreement had been reached, and the idea seemed to collapse entirely as a result.

RELATED: After US walks away from Polish fighter deal, lawmakers left wondering why 

Since then, lawmakers in various NATO nations have issued statements of support for sending jets, but no deals had emerged. However, there have been signs nations are taking the idea more seriously, with the United Kingdom, for example, announcing it would begin training Ukrainian pilots in February.

“Well, maybe we could start to disperse these people around the world just starting to learn to fly different sort of NATO-type planes, but that is principally with a view to a post-war Ukrainian Air Force that will inevitably be re-armed with NATO-type planes,” British Minister for Armed Forces James Heappey told reporters on Feb. 9. “But, of course, you’ve always got an eye on what the next gear change might need to be if the war continues to develop and another gear change is needed,” he added.

“And so in six months time, if that gear change is fast jets, then clearly having started the process of training pilots and engineers, makes that an easier choice to make.”

The UK is also exploring the possibility of supplying Royal Air Force (RAF) Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 1 fighter jets to European MiG-29 operators, so the Soviet-era aircraft can, in turn, be gifted to Ukraine.

There are two major questions now for Poland and Ukraine. The first is whether other MiG-29 operators Bulgaria and Slovakia will agree to send their jets to Ukraine. The second is just how effective these jets can actually be.

As Breaking Defense reported last March, the Bulgarian Air Force has 15 MiG-29A and 3 MiG-29UB jets on hand, but only a few Fulcrums are airworthy and the remaining jets are seen more as potential sources of spare parts. According to denniknk.sk the Slovak Air Force, meanwhile, has only 9 MiG-29AS and a 2 MiG-29UBS in stock — which were all officially retired last August. (An agreement with fellow NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic was signed in order to establish joint patrols of Slovakian airspace, until the delivery of American F-16s to the Slovak Air Force in 2024.)

But according  to Slovakian defense minister Jaroslav Naď, a proponent of sending the jets, Bratislava eventually could send up to 13 aircraft to Ukraine — 10 (theoretically) airworthy, modernized MiGs and three non-modernized aircraft from long-term storage that would serve as a source of spare parts.

Poland has 22 MiG-29A and 6 MiG-29UB in service, but as Duda noted, not all of them are actively being flown. Half of that fleet (the non ex-German aircraft) were equipped with modern avionics and were refurbished and overhauled in 2013-2014 with service life of their airframe extended to 40 years or 4,000 flight hours and the addition of IFF Mark XIIA mod 5 systems. And it is believed modernized MiG-29s will not be transferred to Ukraine.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2023/03/17/slovakia-to-transfer-13-mig-29s-to-ukraine-after-poland-gives-four/

Slovakia to transfer 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine, after Poland gives four

Slovakia to transfer 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine, after Poland gives four

By Jaroslaw Adamowski and Joe Gould Saturday, Mar 18

4-5 minutes

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Mikoyan MIG-29 fighter jets of the Polish Air Force take part in a NATO exercise at the Lask Air Base on Oct. 12, 2022, in Lask, Poland. (Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)

WARSAW, Poland, and WASHINGTON — Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger has announced his country will deliver 13 out-of-commission Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine as part of Bratislava’s support to the nation’s struggle against the Russian invasion.

“Promises must be kept,” Heger said in a tweet on Friday, adding that Slovakia’s military aid was designed to help Ukraine defend itself and “entire Europe against Russia.”

The latest move comes one day after Polish President Andrzej Duda declared his country will supply the first four MiG-29 jets to Ukraine in the coming days, with more aircraft to be delivered in the future.

Slovakia secured 24 single-seater and twin-seater Soviet-made fighters following Czechoslovakia’s dissolution, according to data from the Slovak Ministry of Defence. Of these, the 11 remaining operational aircraft were withdrawn from service last August.

Commenting on the Slovak prime minister’s announcement, the country’s Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said in a Facebook post on Friday: “Slovakia is donating retired, unused and unusable MiG-29s.” He added that “Ukraine has a plant where they can service them, it has trained pilots” who know how to fly such jets.

In addition to the fighters, Slovakia will also supply elements of its Soviet-built 2K12 KUB air defense systems to Ukraine, local news agency TASR reported. In return for the donated gear, Naď said earlier this week the country hopes to receive about €200 million ($213 million) from the European Union’s European Peace Facility, and some $700 million worth of weapons and military equipment from the United States.

The Polish president said his country’s air force will replace the donated Soviet-made fighters with some of the 48 FA-50 light attack aircraft Poland’s Ministry of National Defence ordered from South Korea in September 2022. The first 12 FA-50s are to be supplied this year, and the remaining 36 jets in the years 2025 to 2028.

In the meantime, Slovakia is awaiting the procurement of 14 F-16 Block 70/72 fighters bought from the U.S. to protect the country’s skies. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2024.

The two eastern European countries’ warplane pledges have not swayed Washington to follow suit by donating F-16s, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

“We knew that this was something that the Slovakian government was considering doing so it’s not a surprise that they moved in this direction,” Kirby said. “No, it doesn’t have any impact or effect on our own sovereign decision making when it comes to the F-16.”

The U.S. argument is that Ukraine’s military uses Russian-made MiGs and can absorb them quickly but not the Lockheed Martin-made F-16′s.

“They’re comfortable with those fighter aircraft. They know how to fly them and they know how to maintain them; they know how to operate them and use them in a battlefield situation,” Kirby said, calling the MiGs “additive to the fighter aircraft capabilities that the Ukrainian Air Force has at their disposal.”

Kirby called Slovakia “a terrific supporter” of efforts to aid Ukraine, to which the U.S. has pledged more than $30 billion in military aid since the invasion.

Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.

Joe Gould is the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He served previously as Congress reporter.

[백선호]

개량된 것을 주면 교육에 시간이 걸리니 그런 것이겠죠?

[위종민]

서방제 기체라면 몰라도 펄크럼이라면 우크라이나 입장에서도 익숙한 물건을 받는 게 나을 듯 합니다.

[김용우]

예전에 루프트 바페에서 자기들이 쓸 기체들은 엔진을 엔진 수명연장을 위해 파워 디튠하면서 미그기들이 쓰던 JP-4급 연료에서 당시 자기네가 쓰던 JP-8를 쓸 수 있도록 씰과 도관을 다 바꾸어줘놨던 모양입니다. 요즘 우크라이나는 JP-8을 안쓰고 있을테니 새로 서방제 전투기가 들어온다면 몰라도 소수 들어올 29 몇대 때문에 추가로 보급체계를 만들기는 그렇죠.

[백선호]

연료까지 다르면 더더욱 그렇겠네요. F-16을 받으면 그 때 다시 생각할 수도 있어도...