MiGs Can Lead Double Life
With Dasa's East-West Help

ILA 2000: Germany's MiG-29 fighters are now as reliable as most other Western front-line weapons systems, and maintenance costs have been reduced substantially to around those of an F-4 Phantom, according to Volker Platzo, managing director of MiG Aircraft Product Support, the joint venture company set up by Dasa, RSK MiG and Rosvoorouzhenie.

Luftwaffe MiG-29 will last longer.

Key to this improvement for Germany's 23 MiGs has been creation of a highly efficient maintenance and logistics planning and management program.

Germany now has the world's most-flown MiG fleet, so it knows the aircraft better than anyone else. The lead aircraft has more than 1,200 flight hours, compared with around 400 hours per aircraft in Hungary or Bulgaria.

The MiG-29 was designed with an airframe life of 800 hours or nine years, and most European MiG-29s, although way under the flight limit, are running foul of the calendar.

MAPS has reduced the man hours required for depot level inspection from 120,000 to 20,000, during which it will also increase the life to 2,500 hours or 20 years. It is promoting this service to Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, along with the ability to upgrade the aircraft to NATO standard.

"Every concept must be tailored to each country's needs, along with the logistics management system," said Platzo.

MAPS has won just one contract so far, for life extension on four Romanian MiG-29s, and it is in discussions with Bulgaria.

The MiG-mod plan could make it more appealing for existing users to buy more aircraft instead of Gripen, or to take over used ones, Platzo believes, which could renew the European market for the MiG-29.