Safety concerns raised over Russian military aid
Safety concerns have been raised over a batch of Russian jets promised to Lebanon as part of a military aid package after a report revealed that a third of Russia”s fleet of the planes are so corroded they cannot fly.
Russia announced it would supply Lebanon with 10 MiG-29s as a gift during Defense Minister Elias Murr”s visit to Moscow at the end of last year. At the time, Russia made a point of saying that the aircraft were not new and suffered differing degrees of wear, although it promised they would be modernized to "normal export standards."
The gift was welcomed by Lebanon”s Defense Ministry as evidence of a new "professional military relationship" between the two countries.
But a report published in the Kommersant business daily quotes Russian defense and military sources as saying that more than a third of country”s Mig-29s should be written off as obsolete because they are too rusty to take off without crashing.
"Russia”s Defense Ministry for the first time recognized that around 200 of its MiG-29s are not just unable to cope with their combat tasks, but simply cannot take off," the report says.
The paper was published after two of the jets crashed in as many months last year, forcing the country to ground its entire fleet of the aircraft. Subsequent investigations revealed that 200 of about 500 MiG-29s were unsafe and the planes have been withdrawn from service for good.
Russian military officials say that the recent accidents involving the aircraft were caused by "the destruction of the keel in the air due to corrosion."
"Those fighter jets on which corrosion was not detected – and they make up approximately 30 percent of all jets – have been allowed to resume flights," a senior military officer told Kommersant.
The report will come as a blow to Moscow, which has been trying to re-establish itself as a global arms exporter on the back of its economic recovery.
The MiG-29 was designed in the 1970s to challenge the American-made F15 and F16 fighter jets, and had been considered one of the country”s most potent military jets.
But the recent accidents involving the aircraft, which came months after Algeria returned a batch of 15 MiG-29s to Russia after discovering that they contained substandard parts, have undermined their reputation and the report has confirmed suspicions that many of the aircraft are in a state of disrepair.
A Defense Ministry source told The Daily Star that the 10 MiG-29s would be checked by Lebanese army officers before being shipped to Lebanon.
"We are waiting for an official agreement, which we are expecting in maybe two weeks," the source said. "After that, some army officers will go to check the planes and then they will begin their training in Russia."
After the pilots have been trained, the planes will be brought to Lebanon to bolster the country”s meager airforce, which currently consists of five Hunter Hawker jets dating from the 1950s and 1960s and just over a dozen helicopters.
Lebanese political leaders have said they are open to future arms deals with Russia after Moscow said it was willing to send heavy weaponry to Lebanon for reduced prices.