MINSK, 14 November (BelTA) – The Belarusian army has decommissioned Su-27 jet fighters because using them in such a small area is inadvisable. The information was released by Major-General Oleg Dvigalev, Chief of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Armed Forces of Belarus, at the seminar held by the Defense Ministry on 14 November for heads of national mass media, BelTA has learned.
“Su-27 is a very expensive aircraft to operate, it burns a lot of fuel. It is inadvisable in conditions of the small territory of Belarus. Even for the sake of checking control targets we had to raise Su-27 from, let’ say, the airbase in Baranovichi and keep it in the air for virtually 1.5 hours after the mission was over for the sake of consuming the rest of the fuel. An aircraft had to consume 2-3 tonnes of aviation kerosene for nothing. It was wasteful. Therefore, we no longer use the aircraft,” noted Oleg Dvigalev.
The Air Force and Air Defense Commander said that in Russia, which scale and territory are much larger, Su-27 is the main fighter, which is prioritized and employed depending on Russia’s interests. “They fly and make checks in military districts thousands of kilometers large,” explained the Major-General.
At the same time the Russian side considers Su-27 as the priority model for maintaining operational readiness together with the Belarusian Air Force using the base in Baranovichi. The joint operational readiness duty may be arranged in late 2013 – early 2014. “We will be able to use duty units of the Russian Air Force with approval of the duty officer of the central command post of the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense and the duty officer of the command post of the Russian Federation Aerospace Defense,” explained Oleg Dvigalev.
The Belarusian army announced that Su-27 jet fighters were phased out in late August 2013. Oleg Dvigalev told BelTA that for the sake of maintaining the combat potential of the Belarusian Air Force they had made plans to start using jet fighters like MiG-35 and Su-30. Plans were made to buy Yak-130 type aircraft in 2015 for the sake of training pilots and technicians.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry arranged a seminar for heads of national mass media on 14 November to highlight the current state and development prospects of the Belarusian army. The Belarusian mass media were made familiar with modern and promising areas of army development. Priority aspects of cooperation between the Defense Ministry and state-run mass media for the sake of ensuring the national security of Belarus were discussed.
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