After years of struggling to maintain the airworthiness of its air force inventory in the face of insufficient funding, Serbia and Montenegro was earlier this month forced to ground its last operational MiG-29 interceptor. Aviation corps commander-in-chief Maj Gen Vladimir Starcevic says the country's air superiority capability must now be delivered by its fleet of 20 MiG-21bis fighters.
A total of four MiG-29 fighters and one MiG-29UB two-seat trainer survived the 79-day air phase of 1999's NATO-led Operation Allied Force against the former Yugoslavia, with a further 11 destroyed in the air or on the ground during the action. The surviving aircraft had been kept operational over the last five years through a series of selective repairs, but none of the aircraft have received a thorough overhaul since they were delivered in 1987.
Starcevic says the armed forces' MiG-29s will not to be returned to flying status "until funding is found" for a modernisation programme, and adds that personnel with the country's elite 127 Fighter Squadron will also cease training activities soon, unless a solution is found to a fuel crisis which is limiting the air force's ability to conduct continuity training. "In order to maintain flight training using some 70 aircraft that are airworthy, [our] monthly needs are about 1,000t of fuel," or about 0.7% of the defence budget, he says.
Starcevic has also confirmed a requirement to re-equip the Serbia and Montenegro air force with at least one squadron of multirole fighters, possibly under a lease agreement. The service last year outlined its requirement for up to 24 modern strike aircraft (Flight International, 3-9 June 2003).
IGOR SALINGER / KRALJEVO
Source: Flight International
