Non-Subscriber Extract
Sri Lanka nears MiG-29 purchase
By Jon Grevatt
14 March 2008
Sri Lanka is in advanced talks with Russia over the procurement of five MiG-29 fighter aircraft, the head of the country's state-owned procurement agency has said.
Jayantha Wickramasinghe, chief executive officer of Lanka Logistics and Technologies Limited (the company created by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence in 2007 to procure equipment for the armed forces), said that the acquisition of four MiG-29SMs and one MiG-29UB was "well under way".
"Negotiations about these aircraft are continuing," Wickramasinghe told Jane's on 13 March. "We are discussing all possibilities."
The procurement follows the emergence of the air division of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which used Zlin Z 143 light aircraft to bomb the airport and Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) base in Colombo in March 2007.