Various media outlets reported recently that almost half of russia's MiG-29SMT fleet is stuck at the 514th Aircraft Repair Plant (ARZ) near Kursk despite the plans to sell these fighter aircraft to Algeria. Instead, the Kremlin is facing a choice: to disassemble the jets for spare parts or give them to North Korea.
These reports quote the X profile of the Eastern Order of Battle website, and despite the original information lacking reliable verification, let's analyze this situation in detail.
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For starters, let us clarify that the russian Aerospace Forces had a total of 14 MiG-29SMT aircraft in its inventory as of the beginning of this year, according to The Military Balance 2024 study by London-based think tank IISS. This implies that if a certain number of MiG-29SMTs are indeed "rusting away" at the 514th ARZ near Kursk, as the source claims, these must be some jets that have not been officially accepted into the russian air force yet.
A brief reminder: what makes the MiG-29SMT modification different from the baseline version is the capability to use air-to-surface weapons and updated cockpit equipment.
Meanwhile Algeria, as per the same Military Balance directory, was in possession of 22 MiG-29C/UB and 14 MiG-29M/M2 aircraft as of the early weeks of 2024, with some of these aircraft planned for transfer to Sudan as allied aid.
This is where the most interesting part begins. Algeria really wanted to buy a certain number of MiG-29SMTs from russia, the first batch of 15 fighters was actually delivered in 2006 but soon enough the Algerian military returned these MiGs back to the russians with complaints about the poor operational condition of the aircraft.
Apparently, after this, the russian federation never found new customers for these aircraft, and even the russian Ministry of Defense apparently wasn't interested either. Subsequently, these MiG-29SMTs in substandard condition were relocated to the 514th ARZ near Kursk and remained there — that's where the trail of public data ended until the reports from a few days ago.
Therefore, it would be logical to assume that now russia would try to use these aircraft as payment in kind to North Korea in exchange for its deployment of soldiers against Ukraine, especially since it's not new to russia to supply its business partners with somewhat substandard aircraft from storage.
In that regard, we should recall that russia once redirected the Su-35S fighters from an unrealized contract with Egypt and handed them to Iran in exchange for Shehd-type killer drones and/or other military goods. There's also one more interesting episode where Moscow spent 15 years looking for a buyer for the faulty Indian Su-30Ks until selling them to Ethiopia.
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