The United States has offered to sell Slovakia 12 Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters at a 66% discount after Bratislava transferred its 11 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said on Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters.

Bell AH-1Z Viper helicoptersPhoto: US Marines Photo / Alamy / Profimedia Images

Nad said the government still needs to approve a contract to pay $340 million over three to four years for military aircraft worth more than $1 billion.

The Slovak minister clarified that the difference in price will be covered by the US program “Foreign Military Financing”.

The contract includes spare parts, training of Slovak pilots and more than 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles.

“This proposal is extremely beneficial and will significantly increase Slovakia’s defense potential,” Nad said.

Slovakia’s armed forces currently have no combat helicopters, and Bratislava withdrew 11 MiG-29s from combat operations last summer, meanwhile relying on the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary for air cover.

Slovakia and Poland were the first to transfer MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine

Last Friday, the Slovak government announced that it would transfer 11 decommissioned MiG-29s to Ukraine, becoming only the second country to provide fighter jets to Kyiv.

A week before the announcement, it was Minister Yaroslav Nad who made a public call to demand a decision on this matter.

“I think it’s time to make a decision. People are dying in Ukraine, we can really help them, there is no place for Slovak politics,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page on March 9, referring to the squadron of 11 MiG-29 aircraft.

Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger announced the possibility of sending MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine as early as last July, but Bratislava did not report anything on this matter until last week.

Slovakia has officially announced that it will hand over its MiG-29s to Ukraine the day after Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Andrzej Duda said that Warsaw will send 4 MiG-29s to Ukraine, and more are being prepared. According to him, Poland still has about 10-20 MiG-29 aircraft.

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