MiG-29, NATO reporting name Fulcrum.

Towards the end of August 2022, Slovak MiG-29s made their final military flights during the Slovak International Air Fest over Malacky-Kuchyňa Air Base.  Although they had been recently upgraded with NATO standard equipment, and were expected to be in use until 2035, the Ukraine Crisis resulted in the sudden/hasty retirement of the MiG 29s.

A recent U.S./NATO sponsored air defense agreement between Czech Republic (now known by the wimpy name of Czechia), Poland and Republic of Slovakia, will have Slovak air space defended by Czechia’s Swedish made JAS-39 Gripens and Poland’s U.S. made F-16s, until Slovakia is equipped with U.S. made F-16s (in 2018 Slovakia agreed to buy 14 F-16 Block 70/72 from NATO-United States).

For more proof that the MiG 29 was to be in use for at least another decade, in November 2018 the Slovak government decided to continue operating the MiG 29 until all the expected F-16 Block 70/72s were delivered.  But now, Slovkia’s eleven recently NATO upgraded MiG-29s are just hanging around, waiting for so-called NATO guidance on their fate.

It should be realized that the Czech-o-Slovakia was an artificial country created by the British empire led victors of World War One.  During the lead-up to World War Two, Germany became the so called protectorate of the area of Czechia, while an independent Slovak State was declared.  After that war, the victorious Soviet Union forced the two back together as the Czech-o-Slovakia.

Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).

After the unofficial Cold War unofficially ended, former Warsaw Pact member Czech-o-Slovakia split up, into the Czech Republic and Republic of Slovakia.  Slovakia took 24 MiG-29s as part of the divorce from Czechia and as part of payment of debt owed by the former Soviet Union.

In the past few years, Slovakia embarked on a program to convert its military to NATO standards, one of those actions included sending four fighter pilots to the United States to train on F-16 Falcons, in 2020.

Nebraska Air National Guard video, September 2013; a Nebraska Air Guard KC-135 refuels a Czech JAS 39 Gripen over Slovakia, while a Slovak MiG 29 Fulcrum plays the bad guy and ‘intercepts’ the ‘invaders’:

2008 Ministerstvo obrany Slovenskej republiky (Mo Sr) video, pilot talks about flying the MiG 29:

Soviet era Aircraft used by NATO:  POLAND SUKHOI 22

MiG-21

Soviet era Weapons in use by NATO: Czech-o-Slovakia’s DANA

Indian Air Power:

….including the MiG 29