Slovakia Military

Russia and Slovakia will sign an agreement for upgrade of Mi-17 helicopters
Russian Aviaton » Friday July 17, 2015 15:39 MSK

Russia and Slovakia may sign an agreement for upgrade of Mi-17 helicopters soon, TASS reports with reference to Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico.

“I hope that the agreement for upgrade of Mi-17 helicopters (and other vehicles) carried out in Slovakia will be signed soon,” Fico said.

He also said that Bratislava is interested in upgrading its S-300 air defense systems. “I would like to admit that Slovakia is interested in upgrading S-300 systems,” Fico said.

The Slovakian Prime Minister also noted that his country is interested in Russian civil aviation. In particular, Sukhoi SuperJet 100 and “Tu” (Tupolev) civil aircraft were demonstrated to the delegation prior to departure.

George1 wrote:Slovakia will buy the Polish armored vehicles Rosomak

Greenlight for Slovakia's F-16 Block 70 Request

Slovakia requested 14 F-16 Block 70/72 V configuration from the US under a Foreign Military Sales contract with an estimated cost of $2.91 billion. The Congress was notified of this possible sale on 3 April.

The country also requested up to 16 F-16 F110 General Electric or F100 Pratt & Whitney engines, 16 APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Radars, 16 LN260 EGI Embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation Systems (EGI) (MDE), 30 AIM-120C7 air-to-air missiles, 100 AIM-9X air-to­ air missiles, 24 AIM-9X additional guidance units and other equipment.

Slovakia intends to use these F-16s to modernize its Air Force and strengthen its homeland defence.

George1 wrote:Slovakia has decided to purchase American fighters F-16V Block 70/72

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3268555.html

NEW GOVERNMENT ACCUSES
Slovakian MiG-29 donation to Ukraine “high treason”?
Slovakia decommissioned its MiG-29 at the end of 2022 - to give it away to Ukraine. Since then, NATO has taken over the protection of Slovakian airspace. The new defense minister is outraged. He denounces the MiG donation as "illegal."

Patrick Zwerger
18.06.2024


A dispute has flared up in Slovakia, centered on a fighter plane that no longer exists in the country: the MiG-29. But the very fact that the Slovaks no longer fly MiGs is at the heart of the allegations that Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák from the Smer party smears his predecessor Jaroslav Naď on bread. As a member of the executive minority government, he initiated the donation of 13 Slovak MiG-29s to Ukraine in March 2023. For the incumbent Minister Kaliňák, this is one thing above all: treason.

Weakening of the armed forces
Kaliňák now branded with distinctive words to the Slovak press the donation of the MiGs, which resulted in a "unconstitutional weakening of the armed forces. In fact, since the MiG-29 was decommissioned at the end of 2022, Slovakia has no longer been able to protect its airspace on its own. Since then, partner nations of NATO have taken on this task, including the German Air Force between autumn and Christmas 2023. Slovakia has ordered F-16 Block 70 as MiG successor in the USA, but delivery is a long time coming.


Constitutional issues
It is no secret that the new Slovak government under Prime Minister Roberto Fico is taking a much more distant course in Ukraine than the previous cabinet. Defense Minister Kaliňák's reasoning is primarily aimed at formal legal backgrounds. As a result, his predecessor Naď had no authorization in spring 2023 to arrange for the MiG-29 to be handed over to the Ukrainians free of charge, since the cabinet at that time had already lost its legitimacy in December 2022 due to a vote of no confidence by Parliament and was only in office on an interim basis. Naď was therefore not authorized to arbitrarily decide such a "fundamental foreign policy question.Instead, the parliament should have approved the decision – and there the government at that time no longer had a majority in March 2023.

Ex-Minister does not regret anything
Minister Naď had evaded this decision-making at the time by relying on a legal analysis that the MiGs' gift was a "military contract, for which the approval of the incumbent government is sufficient. "He lied, he shamelessly lied to members of the National Council," said Acting Defense Minister Kaliňák. The MiG-29 fleet was donated to Kiev against the will of the coalition partners at the time, saying that Naď "betrayed national values." Kaliňák therefore announced a criminal complaint against his predecessor.

The accused himself stands by his decision from back then: he is very pleased that the then government of Ukraine donated MiGs, Naď said by video. The jets would be reimbursed through the European Peace Facility, "they save lives, and if we had the opportunity again, we would not make any other decision," the ex-minister continued.