WARSAW \u2014 Belarus has signed a preliminary deal with Russian state-owned aircraft maker Irkut to purchase new Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets for the country’s Air Force, reports local pro-government daily Sovetskaya Belorussiya \u2014 Belarus Segodnya. The new aircraft will replace the outdated Mikoyan MiG-29 fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These aircraft have been operated for about 30 years, although the initial plan was to use operated <\/span>them for 20 years,” said Deputy Defense Minister Major General Igor Lotenkov. “The airstrike capability will be increased following the acquisition of the Su-30.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The amount of the fighter jets, which are to be acquired, was not disclosed by Lotenkov, who serves as the Defense Ministry’s top armaments official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The deputy defense minister said that, with the new aircraft, the Air Force will be enabled to carry out combat missions from any military airport in Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Su-30SM is a twin-engine, two-seat aircraft considered as a 4-plus\u00a0generation fighter jet. The aircraft is enabled with a flight range of 3,000 kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other forthcoming procurements for the Belarusian Air Force include the acquisition of 12 Mil Mi-8 MTV-5 transport helicopters, which are to replace the Mi-8 helos\u00a0and further Yakovlev Yak-130 jet trainers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Belarus has signed a preliminary deal with Russian state-owned aircraft maker Irkut to purchase new Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets for the country\u2019s Air Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":82210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3389],"class_list":["post-38799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FIZQIWQUSVFNJIJMX72S55AFCI","arc_canonical_url":"\/2016\/02\/10\/belarus-to-acquire-su-30sm-fighters-increase-strike-range\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n