Peru's García faces dilemma over upgrading his MiGs
One decision Alan García will be pressed to make soon after he takes office as president on 28 July is what to do about Peru's aging fleet of MiG-29s, already at least six years overdue for major maintenance and upgrading. A Russian technical team has been preparing a menu of options: the Peruvian airforce has already stated its preference for a level of upgrading that would give them parity with Chile's new fleet of F-16s.
Six of Peru's MiG-29s were built in 1987; the other nine in 1988. They were bought in 1996, secondhand, from Belorussia, a move which led a piqued Russia to deny Peru technical support for these aircraft until the government of President Alberto Fujimori bought three MiG-2-SEs directly from Russia in 1998.
When President Alejandro Toledo took office he cut defence spending sharply, in the hope that this gesture would be mirrored by its neighbours, particularly Chile. However, Chile went ahead with its plans to renew its fleet of military aircraft, ordering 10 F-16s from the US and another 24 from the Netherlands. In 2004, Toledo changed his defence policy, setting up a national defence fund to be fed with revenues from the development of the Camisea gas deposits. That same year Peru signed a maintenance agreement with the Russian aircraft manufacturer RAC-MiG.
It is under that agreement that an RAC-MiG team travelled in May to Peru to inspect the MiGs stationed at the Chiclayo airbase (both the older and the newer batches) and start drawing up the plans for an upgrade to be financed from the new fund. The options range from basic maintenance and enough of an upgrade to extend the aircrafts' useful lives, to a major overhaul to bring them up to the standard of the MiG-2-SMT, which should not only prolong their cycle but also match (the Russians say improve upon) features of the new Chilean F-16s such as inflight refuelling, missile arsenal and modern guidance systems.
The latter is what the Peruvian airforce wants. García has been reiterating of late that he does not want to become involved in an arms race. He may, however, choose to emulate neighbours like Chile, Brazil and Venezuela, and claim that refitting or replacing equipment at the end of its useful life is merely restoring the previous balance, not racing to gain advantage.
Peru has relied heavily on Russian (previously Soviet) defence equipment since the left-leaning military government headed by General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-75) chose to break away from dependence on US supplies. Apart from the MiGs, the Peruvian airforce has in service 18 Sukhoi-22s, whose useful life runs out in 2010. It also has 12 French Mirage-2000s, whose useful life runs out in 2007 (and are eight years past their scheduled major maintenance).