The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) has lost one its Mig-29SMs fighter jets in a take-off accident, Luftwaffe AS, a Syrian aviation blog, revealed on March 7.
The Mig-29SM crashed on March 5 a few minutes after taking-off from the Sheirat Air Base in the central governorate of Homs due to a technical failure. The blog shared a video showing the fighter jet taking-off as well as a photo of the crash.
The SyAAF MiG-29SM was piloted by Col. Yunes Al-Makdid whom faced a tech. failure moments after he took off from Sheirat AB -E to W- in an uncommon deployment to this airfield coming from Seen AB. pic.twitter.com/hhCUOfOUo3
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The Fulcrum in question sadly crashed few kilometers at the outskirt of Sheirat village towards the north east of the airfield scoring the first loss of such type in SyAAF service, the pilot was KIA. pic.twitter.com/b7GSvKwmzE
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The fighter jet’s pilot was not able to eject and died in the accident. He was identified as Col. Yunes al-Makdid from the coastal governorate of Lattakia.
This incident took place on 5th March 2020 pic.twitter.com/KuCWuSpmmk
— LuftwaffeAS (@LuftwaffeAS) March 7, 2020
The SyAAF operates around 20 Mig-29. The Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG upgraded the Syrian jets to the specially developed SM standard, which allowed them to fire beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAMs) and precision-guided air-to-surface munitions. Furthermore, the Mig-29SMs were equipped with active jamming systems.
This was the first documented loss of Syrian Mig-29 since this type of fighter jets entered service with the SyAAF in 1989.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, the SyAAF has used its Mig-29SMs a few times to provide Syrian troops, mainly in Homs and Damascus, with close air support.
Has been know that Russia supply Syria with old military hardware and the MIG-29 could be one of the old military hardware provided to Syria.
Another sad loss for Syria.
Russia should fly in brand new one, make it two!
RIP to the pilot. Unfortunately, accidents do happen.
Russia should upgrade Syria’s Air Force by providing them 20 Mig29 SMT and 12 used updraded Suk 30 with improved R77 air to air missiles. Even some upgraded Suk 27 will be a boost.
and your family will pay?
Russia has a lot of good equipment that will be retiring soon, they can do what they did with the S300 and the T90’s and all the equipment and ammo they have been giving Syria for free. Surplus equipment and ammo they do not need because of upgrades and large supplies.
russia never gives non-export versions
Yea for modern up to date equipment. They have a lot of second tier equipment that is older but still effective.
Russia or the ex-Soviet Union had over 10,000 tanks in storage and they will be scraped soon, the best is hand them over to Syria and Iran who can upgrade them. The T-55/62/72 are like Swiss Watches and keep on ticking. Russia also has over 2,000 Soviet era jets in storage and they are easy to upgrade for basic interception and ground attack and should also be given to allies, rather than turning them into blades.
by stopping the jihadist from coming to Moscow
Syria is in no position economically to afford any weapon contract over $500,000,000, until then hopefully Russia continues to provide some BUK/Pantsir AD and T-62/72/90 tanks for free (but in the long run Syria will repay Russia via investments/ oil contracts/other economic contracts)
SU-30 cost around $37.5 million whereas Mig-29SMT cost around $22 million, so Syria is better off going with the latter. 20 Mig-29SMT would cost Syria $440 million, possibly way out of their current budget. But Russia always has a way to help regardless of their client’s financial status.
I am talking about used equipment that can be gradually upgraded. Used Russian equipment that is replaced new armament deliveries.
R77/R73 craps have never locked on to any meaningful target during their entire history. That’s why so many Syrian and Russian jets have been shot down by Turkey whereas none of the f 16 of Turkey and Israel have been hit.
They shot bombers with no A-A missiles; Su-22, Su-24, L39, a MiG-21 with bombs etc.
su 24 and L39 are bombers and strike aircraft not air vs air fighters
i am disheartened. Rest in peace …..
Syria ain’t got much of an air force left… Not really needed however if Russia is permanently stationing Su-57 at Hmeimim.
Suk 35 is king of the skies. Suk 57 will play a more specialized role, it will carry a miniature version of the Khinzhal in its internal bays.
Matters not if Putz Putin stays in his state of catatonia.
Deepest condolences.
Some Su-35 x 12 and 12 x Su-30 SM 4 x Mig-31 will be nice for Syria Now….
SyAAF can’t afford to operate any of them… Probably struggle with affording Yak-130/131’s. (x36 on order)
At most SyAAF can afford maybe 10 Mig-29SM and even then it will be hard
Is it needed though if the Russians are in Hmeimim?
Probably not, but the point is the SyAAF should still be adequate and capable enough to protect their skies without Russian AF assistance, which is the goal in the long run. They could do so with their 10 Mig-29S and 10 Mig-29SMT, but not enough for a long, enduring battle
Think I would be thinking more JF-17?
more expensive than Mig-29SMT, but would definitely help the SyAAF
Well yes, but I don’t think Russia wants to have their supplied aircraft engaging Israeli. (circa $30 million for a Block 2, can’t be that different from a MiG-29SM unit price?)
True, but their supplied AD have been used against israeli jets/missiles. so at this point it makes no difference, an air defense network NEEDS an adequate airforce to bolster and defend it, that’s a big reason why Syria has taken AD losses.
Yes I see where you are coming from, but I from what I understand the Russians are wanting a good degree of control over how the Syrians respond or don’t.
The Russian planes have always proved the losers against US planes in actual air-air combat from the get go. And the trend line over the decades has been getting worse for the Russian planes. Of course, it may not be the fault of the Russian planes but the pilots who fly them.
LOL…they wouldn’t last one day against the IAF. Get real.
You wouldn’t have an airforce or military if it wasn’t for the US taxpayer, get real
Putz Putin has catatonia so he won’t be of much help. But what would help in terms of their longer term maintenance costs would be any attempt at retaking the Golan from Israel. In that case, they would have no planes left over night to have to maintain in the future. I always look for the silver lining.
That would cost the SyAAF ~$1.5 billion dollars, way out of their budget. SyAAF is better off receiving more Mig-29SMT over the long run
Deep condolences to Syrian nation.
Sad loss, in both personnel and hardware. rest in peace brave one…
Considering how much Soviet and Russian military equipment was ragged upon in the 80’s and 90’s by the Western military press and observers it seems to have handled the stress of long term combat operations with high sortie rates fairly well. Not a lot of accidents like these seem to happen.
With the best will in the world however, the Russian naval carrier operations were rather sub-optimal with the loss of both a MiG-29K and a Su-33 through accident. The air-wing worked much better from off of the cruiser-carrier, (Kuznetsov) not on it!
Avg loss rate is 3 jets per deployment on carriers, in the U.S. Navy. Of course you won’t hear that on CNN…
Outliers do not make for the norm. When it comes to the Russian armed forces the nuclear forces take precedence as far as the budget is concerned, then the air force, then the army and the navy seems to come last. And within the navy I speculate that the emphasis seems to be on frigates and destroyers capable of defending the home waters and SLBM armed submarines in the Arctic, not Russia’s sole aircraft carrier. For you have a carrier that was basically falling apart from neglect, with aircraft that have to be launched via an inferior method (ski jump), that can carry less payload because of it, and pilots that have not gotten the same number of flight time and experience as their Western counter parts operating from their carrier. And even at the best conditions carrier aviation is a dangerous business.
Based on that I wouldn’t use the Kuznetsov air group as indicative for Russian aircraft performance.
As a armchair General/Admiral my thoughts are either keep the Kuznetsov as a large ASW/ASuW platform deploying helicopters and a very small air-wing of MiG-29K for purely Arctic waters warfare (protection of the SSBN) and deploy the Su-33’s from a permanent Russian-Arctic base, or scrap the ship altogether and sell the MiG-29K to Syria and have the Su-33’s in the Arctic. (Alexandra Island etc)
I think that’s a reasonably fair analysis. Good armchair admiraling!
Horrible news, RIP Syrian Luftwaffe pilot! Syria’s already suffering economically and same with their military inventory, a $20 million dollar loss for their airforce. SyAAF should in my opinion consider purchasing at least another 15-30 Mig-29SM in the next 5 years, which will add to their small air superiority fleet of only 20 jets. It will cost $330-660 million, possibly too expensive for the current Syrian Defense Spending, but will benefit Syria in the long run. Plus I’m sure Russia can deliver them free of charge in the beginning, or at least with a fraction of the total paid upfront, and the remaining total paid off later via investment/economic contracts/rebuilding/oil, etc.
Luftwaffe . wasn’t that the name of the German airforce during the 2nd WW. which as far as I know has been disused since. The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF)
Well, Assad’s Ba’ath Party was kind of a Nazi assisted creation and has maintained a lot of that ideology.
If I wanted to hear from an arsehole I would have farted.
LOL, especially a Jew bot fart.
They are doing a lot with very little
Photos are not validated by official government as yet,these days there is ever increasing evidence of fallen economys lies and accusations etc,so either this has never happened,just like fake su24s hit the other day,cia state garbage talk,or it was hit by something unverified or sabotaged prior to mission: SU 29s are pretty much very reliable equipment unless someone fkd it?
upgrade them with parachute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyrPVIIQdE
upgrade pilots with fly rocket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAVfArlc08
yak130 are cheaper 15M$ and can do the job
obviously amerikan trash is inferior—their war planes cannot compete w Russian sukois—this is why china, Indonesia, India etc r all purchasing superior Russian technology…the farcical f-35 at a cost of 1.5 trillion USD is slow, easily tracked and jammed….even the euro-fighter is superior to most US trash….Russian pilots love to buzz the cowardly US pilots—who inevitably do nothing but cry to their impotent superiors….2 flew over a US aircraft carrier…so unprepared that it could have easily been destroyed…the dimwit mercenaries in the US military can’t operate radar apparently
Rest in Peace Hero.
May he rest in peace