The Real Thing Or Another Promise To Be Broken?

We've heard them for years now, proclamations from Moscow that this time, the Russian Air Force is really, really going to address crippling problems that include shoddy maintenance, aging aircraft and poor pilot training. Really.

The latest pledge comes from Air Force Chief Vladimir Mikhailov. He says, even though Russia has ordered only a sparse handful of warplanes since the collapse of the Soviet Union, his troops should start taking delivery on a new variant of the MiG-29, called the MiG-29SMT. The Interfax News Agency also quotes Mikhailov as saying there's a new MiG-31 upgrade coming next year, as well as a new long-range SAM. There's also a plan to receive 50 new versions of the MIL-8 gunship between now and 2010.

Money Crunch

It's no state secret that the Russian military suffers from a horrifying budget crunch -- horrifying because of the instability a broken post-Soviet military could mean for all of Europe and China. Now, Gen. Mikhailov concedes that huge swaths of Russia are off-limits to military aircraft because ATC services have simply disintegrated for lack of funds. The air defense system that was so dreaded by American SAC crews during the Cold War has deteriorated to the point where Mikhailov says only one-third of Russia's northern border is now under military radar surveillance. Mikhailov says the same cash crunch has forced tremendous cutbacks in pilot training and has led to several air accidents over the past decade. Where pilots are required to fly 100 hours or so a year, the lack of proper funding means they fly only 40. That, says Gen. Mikhailov, isn't even enough for pilots to remain proficient.

The new and improved Russian Air Force (or more accurately, Mikhailov's vision of it) will be debuted at the Moscow Air Show, which begins August 19th.

FMI: www.airshow.ru