With Algeria reportedly receiving its first batch of MiG-29M/M2 fighter jets from Russia and India’s prospective MiG deal to be signed soon, the jets appear to have made a comeback.
Russia delivered a consignment of MiG-29s, identical to Egyptian jets, to the Algerian Air Force. The fighters were delivered in a disassembled state and are now being prepared for their first flights at the Oran Air Base, menadefense.net reported Monday.
The new jets are expected to replace the older MiGs operational in the Air Force’s 193rd fighter squadron. The service will retire these fighters in 2020.
Algeria’s chief of staff of the Air Force, Major General Hamid Boumaiza revealed earlier this year that a contract for new 14 MiG-29M/M2 and 16 Sukhoi Su-30MKA combat aircraft was signed at MAKS-2019 exhibition in Moscow. An earlier attempt to replace the first generation MiG-29 failed when the country rejected a batch of 34 MiG-29SMTs after it received 15 of them based on old used airframes rather than new-build aircraft, as stipulated in the contract. The rejected airframes were then put into Russian service.