MIGs For Damascus & Tehran

Russia announced recently that it plans to sell Syria a revamped version of its MIG-31 fighter jet. The MIG-31 is the re-vamped version of the MIG-25 Foxbat, can reach speeds of Mach 2.83 and carries a wide variety of long range missiles. The type of MIG-31 that Russia is selling Damascus, the MIG-31E can as reported by GlobalSecurity.org:

"The MiG-31E provides facilities for vectoring up to three fighters, types MiG-21-93, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-29, Su-27 to ensure a covert attack. A group of four MiG-31E fighter-interceptors is capable of interchanging data in the automatic mode on presence of air targets in the zone up to 800 km wide."

Not only is Russia planning on selling a batch of MIG-31s, but it also wants to sell Syria the new MIG-29M/M2. This advanced multi-role fighter jet has brand new liquid crystal displays and a long range interception capability.

This sale raises a number of questions. Woodward and Bernstein were told to "follow the money," but Syria is so deep in debt it technically shouldn't have the money to pull off all of this new defensive procurement. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported,

"Several questions are raised by the deal. First, where Syria got the money for such expensive weapons. In the winter of 2005, Russia wrote off 70 percent of Syria's foreign debt, which was $13.4 billion at the time. Under that agreement, Syria's debt to Russia was reduced to $3.6 billion. Russia renewed military-technical cooperation with Syrian at the same time. Information has arisen regularly since the beginning of 2005 that Syria is in negotiations with Russia for the purchase of new weapons."

I was really drawn to the Kommersant article mainly because of its title, "MiGs Will Defend Syria and Iran." Read that closely Syria and Iran. Now a cliche statement in the academic world, but widely ignored by many in the press, Syria and Iran are forming a strategic alliance based on their mutual hatred of the United States and Israel. Not only are their external enemies much the same, but their ruling groups (Alawites in Syria, Twelver Shia in Iran) are both Shia minority states in a sea of US allied Sunni Muslim countries (such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Egypt, and Jordan. Syria itself has about a 70% Sunni majority).

Israel expressed concern about the sale. Nevertheless, as a casual, realistic observer, one can assume that Israel's intelligence and air capabilities could greatly counter any advance made by Syria. Historically Israel was gravely concerned in the 1970s when Syria received a large number of Soviet MIG-23 swing wing fighter jets, only to shoot large numbers of them down over Lebanon in 1982, without a single loss to Israel. If Syria even wanted to even the odds vis a vis Israel they would need to greatly upgrade training and tactics. I can only speculate that Syria will make the same errors as it has in the past regarding its air force; they will buy the most advanced Russian equipment yet neglect to really train its pilots.

Video of the MIG-31:



Video of the MIG-29: