CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

SRI LANKA HAS OVERCOME THE MILITARY DISABILITY OF NIGHT TIME BOMBING SORTIES, THANKS TO THE NEWLY BOUGHT RUSSIAN PLANES

By Walter Jayawardhana

The latest attacks at Pudiyan Kattu LTTE bunkers near Oddusudan 11.54 p.m. at night indicate that the Sri Lanka Air Force has now overcome their night flying disability by the purchase of new aircraft, analysts in Colombo pointed out.

It is a great contrast from the time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) primitive aircraft attacked Colombo and the fighter jets of the Sri Lanka Air Force were unable to chase them or do any night time bombing.

Also lacking a modern radar system at the time, even Colombo’s International Air Port had to be closed down for night flying due to the primitive LTTE aircaft.

Earlier , the Sri Lanka Air Force jets were restricted to day time flying and when the bombing sorties ended with the end of the day LTTE open air activities were started at night protected under the cover of the darkness.

Unlike the older versions of Migs Sri Lanka bought earlier the Mig 29 air crafts, Sri Lanka purchased recently are not only capable of carrying air to ground missiles but also air to air missiles that could destroy enemy aircraft flying. They could also do night flying.
Mig 29 ‘s were originally developed to fight the powerful US aircraft F16 Falcons and F/ A 18 Hornets of the United States air force.

A Russian web site announced that the five Mig 29 jets Sri Lanka purchased belong to varieties of the Mig 29. Four of them were Mig 29 SMs which are purely fighter jets and one was a Mig 29 UB which has both fighting as well as training capabilities.

The five jet aircraft will “broaden the capabilities of the Sri Lanka …. military aircraft park that now consists of four modernized MiG-27. The deal has been estimated at $US75 million.” The Russian website further said.

The Russian website said before the state to state deal was concluded “Sri Lanka also held negotiations with India , Pakistan , and China over new fighter jets purchasing, but the Russian proposal looked most beneficial.”

“The Mikoyan MiG-29 is a 4th generation jet fighter aircraft designed for the air superiority role in the former Soviet Union. “Developed in the 1970s by the Mikoyan design bureau, it entered service in 1983 and remains in use by the Russian Air Force as well as in many other nations. NATO’s reporting name for the MiG-29 is "Fulcrum", which was unofficially used by Soviet pilots in service.”

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