A large part of Russia's fighter jet fleet has been found unsafe during inspections made after a MiG-29 plane lost part of its tail on a training flight, the air force said Friday.
The air force grounded the entire MiG-29 fleet after the Dec. 5 crash in southern Siberia, an area where another of the jets had crashed in October. A check of the planes' condition began as a military panel investigated the cause of the December crash.
Air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik said Friday that about 90 MiG-29s had been found unsafe to fly and would need repairs. Over 100 of the planes have been cleared for flights, and a number of others remain to be checked, he said.
Drik did not say how many MiG-29s the air force has. Russian media reports put their number at about 300, and the entire fighter fleet at some 650.
Drik would not say how long repairs of the faulty planes and checks of the remaining part of the fleet could take.
"That will depend on the availability of funds," he told The Associated Press. Drik refused to provide a cost estimate or give any further details on the planes' condition.
Air Force Lt.-Gen. Sergei Bainetov said investigators continued looking into the reason for corrosion that caused the tail section to break off in December, Interfax news agency reported.
The twin-engined MiG-29, codenamed Fulkrum by NATO, has been in service with the Soviet and then Russian air force since the 1980s. The two other types of fighters in the Russian inventory, the Su-27 and the MiG-31, also date from the 1980s.
The military may find it hard to afford costly repairs of the planes now, when slumping oil prices have drained the government coffers. During eight years of Russia's oil-driven economic boom, the military has upgraded only a few dozen fighter jets.
Grounding of the MiG fleet has dealt a blow to the Kremlin's effort to revive the nation's military and project its power worldwide. It may also jeopardize Russia's efforts to increase arms sales.
In a humiliating blow to Russia, Algeria last year returned 15 MiG-29s, saying the quality was poor. Moscow has dismissed the claim, and the Russian military said it would commission the planes this year.
You know I hate to be predictable but...
Whoooo! Drink'em if you got them. This keeps one out of four tied down.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
I'm reminded of a story I once heard of a Russian defector who flew one of their most advanced fighters to Japan from Vladivostok back in the Cold War. When the American military technicians took the plane apart to inspect it, they were astonished to find rust inside the fighter's systems. The Soviet military had been unable to maintain their fleet of aircraft to prevent such things.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
Considering that a whole swackload of F-15s got grounded recently due to air frame wear and tear, it's not surprising. It's not like stress fatigue only happens to materials in wealthier nations. The problems were only going to be worse in Russia.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
A fair number are probably in bad shape, but American jets are physically flown far more often than Russian ones are. They don't (usually) tend to sit in depots for a year with nobody looking at them.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
To put it bluntly, Russia needs interceptor craft more then the US does (we still need them mind) so this is a bigger problem for them then ours is for us.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
