The images of the first four MiG-29 fighters delivered to Ukraine by Slovakia

@DefAviation ES 3·24·2023 · 22:38 0

This Thursday, Slovakia has become the first country to confirm the delivery of fighters to Ukraine, specifically four MiG-29.

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The dispatch of these fighters was confirmed last week by the government of Slovakia, noting that a total of 13 fighters would be delivered to Ukraine. Recall that the last 11 MiG-29s operated by the Slovak Air Force were retired from service in August 2022. To replace them, Slovakia bought 14 F-16 Block 70s from the US in 2021, and will he expects the first to be delivered in 2024.

On Thursday, the Slovak Air Force confirmed the successful delivery of the first four MiG-29s to "the Ukrainian brothers in arms", posting a video showing these Soviet-sourced fighters already in the hands of the Ukrainian Air Force:

As a curious fact, the song heard in the video is the Slovak version of "Hej Sokoły", a popular Ukrainian song of Polish origin that I already told you about here. In the video we see planes with the two types of camouflage that the Slovak MiG-29s had been using, the old one made up of two shades of gray and the more recent one of a pixelated type.

In this image we see on the right one of the pixelated camouflage MiG-29s with the Slovak insignia already covered in its starboard drift. The plane to your left is also a Slovakian MiG-29, the MiG-29AS Fulcrum-A 2123 (cn 2960536021).

An image of the impressive nozzles of another Slovakian MiG-29. In this case it is another Fulcrum-A, as it has the typical circular container of the drag parachute between the nozzles.

Another of the Slovak MiG-29s already in Ukraine. This plane has pixelated camouflage. As a curious fact, due to the large size of the air intakes of the MiG-29 and how close they are to the ground, when the plane is taxiing down the runway or taking off, these intakes are closed to prevent the entry of foreign objects that could damage the engines, and in their place several smaller intakes are opened on the fuselage to supply air to the jets.

An image showing the tails of two other Ukrainian MiG-29s, revealing the number of another of these aircraft, 6124, another MiG-29AS Fulcrum-A (cn 2960536061).

The Slovak Air Force shows its own fighters still in service

In addition to these images released by the Slovak Air Force, in recent days the Ukrainian Air Force has released images of its own aircraft, thus disproving the idea spread by some that their fighters had been destroyed ashore in the early days of the invasion. Yesterday he posted this photo of a Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-27 along with this text: "Ukrainian Su-27 takes off for another combat mission. But it would be easier for him if the F-16 helped him out."

On Tuesday, March 21, the Ukrainian Air Force also released this image of one of their Sukhoi Su-24 "Fencer".

Last month, on February 16, the Ukrainian Air Force displayed this photo of one of its MiG-29s carrying under its wings R-27 medium-range and R-73 short-range air-to-air missiles.

On March 11, the Ukrainian Air Force Twitter channel posted this video showing two Ukrainian MiG-29s (the one on the left and the plane from which it was recorded the video).