Foreign diplomatic sources quoted by Maariv Wednesday said Syria will soon receive Soviet MIG-29 aircraft. According to the paper, this will change the balance of air power between Israel and Syria.
Experts here said the arrival of MIG-29s in the region would return the situation to what it was in 1967 when Israel’s French-built Mirage jets were opposed by Egyptian MIG-21s from the Soviet Union. Both aircraft had equal capabilities and Israel’s superiority in the air was determined by the higher quality of its pilots, they said.
The MIG-29 is considered the equal of the American F-15s, the Mirage 2000s in the Israel Air Force, and in certain aspects, their superior. None of the Warsaw Pact countries have received MIG-29s. They have been supplied to India and may go to other Middle East countries in the future, including Iraq.
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