Slovakia’s defence minister Jaroslav Nad says neighbouring Poland is ready to guard Slovak airspace if the country decides to ground its fleet of aging Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets.
His Polish counterpart said Poland’s F-16s could provide protection from bases inside Poland.
Polish jets already help to protect the Baltic states as part of Nato’s air policing operations.
But the timing of this announcement – following a meeting of the two ministers in Bratislava – is significant.
It was not explicitly stated, but it suggests there are serious moves afoot to send some of Slovakia’s MiGs to Ukraine.
To be fair, Slovakia has been looking for some time at ways to protect its airspace until an order of new F-16 fighters arrives from the US.
On paper Slovakia has a total of 12 MiG-29s, based at Sliac air base in Central Slovakia.
However, there have long been questions over their airworthiness.
In 2018, Bratislava signed a deal with Washington to buy some 18 F-16 fighter jets to replace them, but the global chip shortage has pushed back delivery from 2023 to 2024.
Analysts say Slovakia could either send airworthy planes or aircraft that could be cannibalised by Ukraine for spare parts.
Ukrainian pilots already fly the Soviet-era aircraft, but the Slovak MiGs reportedly contain Nato systems they may not be familiar with, and which would need to be removed to avoid falling into the hands of Russia.
An added complication is the jets are only kept in the air by a team of Russian technicians, who are – it is claimed – still based at Sliac, despite the war.
source:BBC
