Transfer of aircraft to North Korea
The commander of the US Indo-Pacific, Admiral Samuel Paparo, said that Russia has reached an agreement with North Korea to send MiG-29 and Su-27 fighter jets.
He also believes that North Korean soldiers are currently not participating in active hostilities in Ukraine, but are deployed in combat zones.
He believes that in addition to the jets, North Korea likely wants other capabilities. We are talking about ballistic missile technologies, especially vehicles with a return function, as well as new submarine technology and air defense systems.
How many planes could North Korea accommodate?
At the same time, Defense Express recalled that earlier it was said that North Korea could receive Su-35 aircraft from Russia. This was proven by the fact that Kim Jong-un visited the aircraft factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where the production of the Su-35 takes place.
However, the publication believes that if we evaluate the current state of North Korea’s aviation, then the transfer of the MiG-29 and Su-27 is an unconditional reinforcement in terms of quality.
From open data, it is known that of the relatively modern models, North Korea has only 18 MiG-29 and 34 Su-25. These aircraft were received from the Soviet Union back in the 1980s. It is also known that North Korea may have fifty MiG-23s, up to 200 MiG-21s and up to 200 MiG-17s and MiG-19s.
At the same time, it is not known exactly which of these aircraft are capable of flying.
According to Defense Express, a key question is how many of its MiG-29s and Su-27s Russia will be able to transfer to North Korea.
It is known that at the beginning of this year Russia had 70 Soviet MiG-29/MiG-29UB, 14 modernized MiG-29SMT and two MiG-29UBT. There were also 12 Su-27 and 18 Su-27UB aircraft, 47 Su-27SM and 24 Su-27SM3 aircraft, and in addition, 18 Su-27 in the basic version also have naval aircraft of the Russian Navy.
From which it can be understood that the number of aircraft planned for transfer from the Russian Federation to North Korea can be determined by the level of their technical development in aviation that the Russians will be willing to share with their North Korean “colleagues”.
