Major-General Gad Salah, the only Algerian top military officer seriously in ‘love’ with the Su-34 is died on Dec. 23, 2019.
On Dec. 27, 2019 Mena Defense reported that Algeria has signed contracts for the Sukhoi Su-34 and Sukhoi Su-57 (14 examples of each type).
But according to The Aviation Geek Club contributor and world famous modern military aviation author Tom Cooper they country didn’t signed any contract.
“The following is actually not the least related to any kind of religion. But, and as so often in recent years, short of the Orthodox Christian Christmas on Jan. 7, Kremlin is ‘already celebrating’ – by spreading all sorts of unsubstantiated rumors.
“This time these are not only related to the ‘service entry of the first hypersonic weapon’ (ho-hum), but also about wildest reports about the Algerians ordering dozens of Sukhoi Su-34s and Su-57s.
“Accordingly, mere ‘talks’ between representatives of Algiers and Moscow’s are something like ‘1000% guarantee’ that Algeria is going to order. Indeed, it means that Algeria has already ordered, i.e. the contract has been signed…. ‘this time’… or what/whenever….
“To start with, Algeria has (supposedly) ‘ordered’ Su-34s already back in December 2015 (Click here to read the actual story of that ‘order’).
“Now pay attention: the actual perpetrator of the entire affair, Major-General Gad Salah – the man, so claimed many Greeks and Egyptians, who was about to lead Algeria into a military intervention in Libya (oh my dear) – died just a few days ago (specifically: on 23 December).
“But that doesn’t matter. I.e. it doesn’t matter if the only top military officer there serious with his ‘love’ for the Su-34 is no more. It also doesn’t matter if the Algerian arms-import law _dictates_ that any kind of combat aircraft (or helicopter) must first be flight-tested in Algeria before any kind of an acquisition. Even less so does it matter if the Russians would never let any of their customers from abroad do something like weapons testing in Russia: this is something they always _must_ do at home. Nah, all of this is ‘irrelevant’ – because people reporting about this Algerian ‘order’ do not know about such ‘factors’…
“Instead, this contract should’ve already been signed, and that on basis of reports citing little else but ‘talks’ – and spread by some anonymous sources…?”
Hence, another country (and not Algeria) will become the first export customer for the Su-34 and the Su-57. Maybe.
Photo credit: Alex Beltyukov via Wikipedia
