Russia freezes deal to deliver MIG-31E planes to Syria - repor

[tigershark]

Russia freezes deal to deliver MIG-31E planes to Syria - repor
 20 May, 11:06 PM

Russia has frozen its deal to ship eight MIG-31E fighter-interceptor planes to Syria, a newspaper has reported suggesting either shortage of funds on Syria’s side, or pressure from Israel.

According to a report published Wednesday in Kommersant daily, the $500 million contract to supply Syria with Russian fighter-interceptor planes was signed in early 2007.

The Sokol aviation plant began works on the modernization of MIG-31s from Russian Air Force reserves in the summer of 2007. However in April 2009 the works had to be stopped due to “absence of contract”, the paper reports citing sources at the aviation plant. No official comments were available.

According to a source close to the Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state enterprise responsible for import and export of weapons and military products, has told Kommersant that the contract had to be frozen due to pressure from Israel.

“In a similar way, when Russia signed the deal with Syria for delivery of Iskander-E missile complexes in 2005. The Israelis put pressure on Russia, and the contract was annulated.”

However a different source at the Defense Ministry, also cited by the paper, said the contract was called off because Syria could not afford the planes.

In winter 2005 Russia wrote off 70 percent of Syria’s debt, but Damask still owed Russia $3.6 billion.

Source
http://www.mosnews.com/money/2009/05/20/tosyria/

[F-111 C/C]

I'm going with pressure from Israel on this one. MiG-31 - talk about an updated dinosaur!

[tigershark]

Hi F-111C/C/
I agree there was pressure and also the UAV sales among other issues going on.

I am not a Mig-31 fan I feel this cold war interceptor should be retired.  The days of racing up to meet waves of B-52s are long over.  Russia doesn't field magical powered long range AA missiles so this huge platform would be seen and become a target from many miles out or just avoided all together.  It can't turn so once it's committed it could be setup but lets face those B-52 aren't inbound.  It's drop dead fast so if it detected a threat it could out run just about anything, run where is the next question but it is fast.  Its so big I'll assume it could almost be tracked from space assets, can you imagine the heat footprint its large metal body gives off besides the large RCS?  It would serve Russia needs by going to a all Flanker standard. 

Very few have been upgraded a Russian mod in a different forum I'm in mention that the same two Mig-31 (BM I think, hope I got that right) are still being tested.  I assume the current models are being kept up from spare found in Russian bone yards, must be a maintenance burden to keep these beast flying because of there age. 

[Webmaster]

Tom Cooper reports in the latest issue of Fliegerrevue that according to Syrian AF officials, Syria turned down the MiG-31, only wanted the multi-role  MiG-29SMT-2. He points out that these views are supported by the new training that was prepared for the pilots of the current fleet of MiG-21, MiG-23 and Su-22 strike aircraft, but there were no such preparations for their interceptor counterparts  the MiG-31.

Did Moscow try to play Tel Aviv? Israel blocked the UAV deal, maybe they also found out. And/or more worried about S300s.