Russia might have supplied rebuilt Sukhoi aircraft to Iraq - source
MOSCOW. June 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Iraq might have received from Russia a batch of refurbished Sukhoi aircraft, a source in the Russian aviation industry told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
"Most likely, Iraq did get some quantity of the Su-30MKI aircraft that were used by the Indian Air Force and returned to Irkut after many years in service. The aircraft were sent to a Belarusian repair plant in Baranovichi. After being repaired some of these aircraft were already supplied to Angola, the remaining five or six could easily have ended up in Iraq," the source said.
He was commenting on a statement by Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki that his country bought several used Sukhoi aircraft from Russia and Belarus.
At the same time, he said, it is not ruled that the aircraft were delivered to Iraq from storage warehouses of the Russian Defense Ministry. "In which case the aircraft supplied to Iraq could be either Su-27SKM made by Sukhoi, or Su-25 attack aircraft by the same maker," the source said.
"Such a method of supplying exists too. There was a time when Russia supplied 50 armored personnel carriers from its warehouses to Palestine free of charge," the source said.
Sukhoi, Irkut and Rosoboronexport were not available to comment on this matter.