Slovakia, like Poland, will leave its MiG-29 fighter planes to the UkrainePrime Minister Eduard Heger confirmed this at a press conference in Bratislava on Friday. Slovakia will deliver a total of 13 fighter aircraft of this type to Kiev, as well as two of its old 2K12M2 Kub-M2 surface-to-air missile systems and a radar.
In NATO terminology, the Soviet air defense system from the mid-1970s is known as the SA-6 Guideline, although it has not yet been delivered to Ukraine. It is the predecessor of the Buk-M1 mobile medium-range system (NATO: SA-11 Gadfly), which is indeed used by Ukraine (and still by Russia). Like Buk, Kub uses the launcher on the 2P25 tracked chassis, but unlike its successor with three instead of four missiles, while the associated 1S91 fire control radar (NATO: Straight Flush/G/H-Band, range 75 kilometers) is mounted on a separate vehicle.
The missiles of the 3M9M family have a range of 25 kilometers and an altitude of 14 kilometers and use semi-active homing. Of these, 52 3M9MEs and 148 3M9M3Es are now to be delivered to the neighboring country. Slovakia’s ground-based air defense will subsequently and until further notice be covered by NATO partner Italy with a SAMP/T-MAMBA battery, while Germany pledged on 14 March to donate two Mantis short-range gun systems to Slovakia. All of the aforementioned eastern and western systems cover ranges and altitudes that have been out of reach for neighboring and neutral Austria since 1955. This is now to come to an end, however, as this capability gap is finally to be closed as part of the “Aufbauplan 2032”. For the first time, the army is aiming for defensive systems with a medium range of around 50 kilometers. The Federal Armed Forces Planning Director estimates the cost of acquiring the desired capability at around two billion euros.
