Slovakia: US offers attack helicopters for MiG donation

The United States has offered to buy military helicopters for Slovakia at a discount in exchange for Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets promised to Ukraine. This was announced by Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nag via Facebook yesterday. A decision on whether to accept the offer is yet to be made. NATO government wants to hand over 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine

The U.S. offer includes 12 Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters, pilot and technician training, and 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles. Minister Knok promoted the offer, with a real value of $1 billion, but Slovakia could pay in installments of about $340 million (€316 million). ) buy the package.

Reactions from other parliamentary parties showed that some sections of the opposition were also in favor of accepting the offer. According to the TASR news agency, former Social Democratic Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said the offer was “economically advantageous” and would help modernize the Slovak Air Force.

Pellegrini’s Social Democrats, like the rest of the opposition, criticized the decision to hand over the MiG-29 to the minority government, which has been in office only on an interim basis since losing a no-confidence vote in December. Ukraine boycotts parliament.