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To: sukhoi-30mki
"Venezuela plans to buy about 50 Russian MiG-29 fighters in various modifications, with 40 single-seat and 10 dual-seat models. Venezuela plans to spend about 5 billion dollars for the Russian fighters, including missiles and special aviation and airfield equipment."

$5 billion for 50 fighters ? I told you that Russian equipment became very expensive. Is close range still a problem in modernized versions of MIGs-29 ?
76 posted on 09/18/2004 6:38:29 AM PDT by Grzegorz 246
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To: Grzegorz 246

I don't think the 5 billion is for the fighters itself(u could get 80 F-15Es+ their weaponry for that).The report as u urself might have seen ,is pretty ambigious on the specifics.It says airfield equipment etc,so I think they are improving their logistical capabilities,which is not exactly cheap.

Did you mean the short range of the earlier Mig-29 or it's poor radar system.The Mig-29SMT ,which is the multi-role variant of the Mig-29 has larger internal fuel tanks & besides it can be refuelled in midair.Malaysian & Indian Mig-29s carry new 'Phazatron' radars & have the ability to fire the AA-12 ADDER missile(rated to be analogous to the US AMRAAM)-so that somewhat sorts out the long range capability.Moreover India can integrate it's Mig-29s to the Phalcon AWACS system it is getting from Israel,making it far more potent.About the Mig-29s that Poland is getting, I think the Germans did a lot of modifying themselves.The Poles can team up with the Israelis to enable it to launch the Python-4 or Derby AAMs or integrate the AMRAAM itself.


78 posted on 09/18/2004 6:59:19 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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