A MiG-29B trainer is winched into a U.S. Air Force
C-17 Globemaster III for air shipment from Moldova to the United States on Oct. 28, 1997. The Department of Defense of the United States of America and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova recently reached an agreement to implement the Cooperative Threat Reduction accord signed on June 23, 1997, in Moldova. This agreement authorized the United States Government to purchase nuclear-capable MiG-29 fighter planes from the Government of Moldova. This is a joint effort by both governments to ensure that these dual-use military weapons do not fall in to the hands of rogue states. The Globemaster is deployed from Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. DoD photo.
DoD News Briefing
Washington Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced November 4
that the United States would buy 21 advanced nuclear capable MiG-29
fighters from Moldova as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction
Initiative.
Вопрос: When you said this was the first such purchase, you meant of the C models? The United States has other MiG-29s.
Ответ: Right.
Of the 21 MIGs purchased from Moldova, 14 were MIG-29Cs, the most advanced design. There were six MIG-29As and one MIG-29B. A senior defense official would not specify the current market price of the most advanced MIG-29s, but he said they "can get in the neighborhood" of the cost of some advanced U.S. fighter aircraft. Those can run $20 million to $30 million each, he said. Cohen described the Moldovans' price as "quite reasonable." The senior defense official said the aircraft came on the market because Moldova decided to eliminate its air force. Most MIGs in other countries remain in active service and are not for sale, the official said. Search the archives of the Los Angeles Times for similar stories. You will not be charged to look for stories, only to retrieve one.
The Soviet-designed fighters were dismantled and moved from the
Eastern European republic to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Air Force officials will study the aircraft's capabilities and ways to
counter them, Cohen said.
По сообщению журнала "Aviation Week and Space Technolodgy", воспроизведенному в середине ноября 1997 г. агентством ИТАР-ТАСС, купленные у Молдовы
МиГ-29 поступят на вооружение эскадрильи ВВС
США "Красные орлы", летчики которой отрабатывают тактику действий против авиации условного противника в учениях "Red Flag" и "Green Flag". В настоящее время самолеты условного противника имитируются устаревшими истребителями советского производства
МиГ-21 и
МиГ-23, базирующимися на аэродромах Грум-лейк (Groom-Lake) и Тонопа (Тоnора) в штате Невада, а также американскими самолетами
F-16N и А-4М "Скайхок" (ВМС США). Согласно этой информации, МиГ-29 будут базироваться на авиабазе Райт-Паттерсон (Wright-Patterson) в штате Огайо, а после завершения подготовки к летной эксплуатации их передислоцируют на авиабазу Неллис (Nellis) в штате Невада. Пилотировать их будут летчики, прошедшие переучивание на данный тип самолета и специальную подготовку в Германии
Источники:
www.defenselink.mil/photos/Nov1997/971028-F-0000X-003.html
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov1997/n11101997_9711102.html
http://win.www.airwar.ru/history/locwar/xussr/pridnest/pridnest.html