Belarus plans to replace MiG-29 fighters with Su-30SMs after 2020

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World Defense & Security News - Belarus
 
 
Belarus plans to replace MiG-29 fighters with Su-30SMs after 2020
 
The Belorussian Defense Ministry plans to replace MiG-29 fighters with Su-30s after 2020, Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, Belorussian Air Force and Air Defense Commander declared today, Oct. 21, 2015, to the russian news agency TASS.
     
Belarus plans to replace MiG 29 fighters with Su 30SMs after 2020 640 001Two Belorussian MiG-29 fighter aircraft
     
"Naturally, the existing fleet of aircraft, especially the fighters like MiG-29s, are becoming obsolete. Time comes to decide on replacing them. As an alternative we consider the Su-30SM from the Irkut Corporation. This is our perspective following 2020," Belorussian news agency BelTA quotes Dvigalev as saying.

As per the information available, by the beginning of the new century the fleet of Belorussian Air Force had slightly more than forty MiG-29s at the Beryoza and Baranovichi airbases. Over time, all the aircraft of Beryoza were relocated to Baranovichi for vacating the site for an UAV airbase. It was decided to upgrade part of them to the MiG-29BM version, relying on the Russian experience obtained in the late 90s while creating the MiG-29SMT.

The main modernization work done by the aircraft repair facility 558 in Baranovichi included optimization of the existing and installation of new equipment plus considerable expansion of the armament package and introduction of aerial refueling capability.

At least 38 MiG-29s remain in active service in the Belorussian Air Force.