• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

National Cabinet unanimously and in conformity with the Constitution votes to send the MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine

Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic

17.03.2023

Slovak Government adopted a decision to provide Ukraine with the already grounded MiG-29 fighter jets that Slovakia no longer uses. In line with the UN Charter and in view of the close and friendly relations with Ukraine, the Slovak Government, in full conformity with the Constitution, consensually decided in favour of donating said aircraft, hence saving lives of people.

Within the framework of inter-governmental non-military agreement between Slovakia and Ukraine, the 13 of our MiG-29 fighter jets will be sent to Ukraine. In addition, the aid package will consist of 2 launchers of the KUB Anti-Aircraft Missile System, a control system and pertinent spare parts and missiles.

It is assumed that the said equipment might be ultimately delivered in a horizon of several upcoming weeks. As confirmed by the Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, Slovakia will give Ukraine the MiG-29 aircraft for the purpose of protecting the civilian population from bombings. "Just as the system S-300 that we have provided Ukraine with helped save thousands of lives, these fighter jets will, by the same token, ultimately save lives of thousands of people," he said. At the same time, he refused the unsubstantiated allegations that such incentive would drag Slovakia into war. "It is not true, the Slovak Republic is a member of the strongest alliance in the world - NATO, and this alliance is a guarantee of the highest degree of protection ever perceived in the history of the Slovak Republic, and the same will further grow in the future," he accentuated.

As confirmed by Jaroslav Naď, Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic, besides compensation to be provided by the European Peace Facility for the donated equipment, the United States of America have introduced a bilateral offer involving a specific military equipment, with the added value of such equipment, in financial terms, being set at ca. 700 million US dollars. All in all, the total amount of compensation might reach approximately 900 million euros. "Apparently, this will be advantageous for the Slovak Armed Forces and beneficial in terms of defence capability of the Slovak Republic. What is of the paramount importance, though, is the fact that, in line with the principles of the UN Charter and in consideration of our relations with Ukraine, this is something we can do to help save human lives - this is our main ambition and the reason why we should give to Ukraine our MiG-29 aircraft, which are no longer being used." stated the Slovak Minister of Defence Jaroslav Naď.

Present at the meeting of the Cabinet was also the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic Gen. Daniel Zmeko, who repeatedly confirmed that the configuration of the MiG-29 fighter jets, which is currently in the inventory of the Slovak Armed Forces, would no longer be used in the Slovak Armed Forces. He accentuated that the Slovak MiG-29 fighter jets were last modernized in 1996 and that said aircraft suffer a high failure rate, which is documented by the fact that they reported failure in average every 43 minutes at the time when they were last in an operational condition.

"In the final stage of operating the MiG-29 aircraft we had to cope with problems due to a lack of pilots. Over the last years, when we experienced technical problems concerning the MiG-29 aircraft life cycle, even those pilots that we still had, lost most of their pilot handling skills and capabilities. The fundamental problem was the operation rate of said aircraft - by virtue of The On-Demand Maintenance Agreement, the operation rate oscillated at some four operational MiG-29 aircraft in one operational day, which was insufficient even in terms of ensuring the standby capabilities with respect to the airspace protection and rendered training of new pilots impossible. Another critical problem was the availability of spare parts, components and ammunition. Handing over the MiG-29 aircraft will have no adverse impact on defence capability of the Slovak Republic since we do not use them anymore and we will not use them in the future," said Gen. Zmeko.