Bangladesh, Laos, and Myanmar: Who Else Uses Yak-130 Aircraft and How Did They End up in Belarus?

After the tragedy in Baranavichy, there were questions to the authorities.

The crash of Yak-130 in a residential area of Baranavichy and the death of both pilots drew public attention to the problems of national aviation. What are these Yak-130s, and how did they end up in Belarus?

Until the acquisition of the Yak-130 in 2015, Belarus had not renewed its fleet of combat aircraft since the Soviet Union times. Even the Baranavichy Aircraft Repair Plant was no longer an option - the issue was mechanical, not electronic functionality of the old equipment, writes Nasha Niva.

Lukashenka told Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2013 that he "lacks two dozen modern aircraft". What did Russia offer in response? To place an airbase.

The failure to sell modern fighters to the Belarusians looks like a political calculation by the Kremlin to eventually force the deployment of troops on Belarusian territory.

The following story proves the cynicism of Russia: in 2013, India returned 18 Su-30Ks to Russia in exchange for Su-30-MKIs. The Russians intended to resell those planes at a residual price, which could have been profitable for Belarus. But the planes were given to Angola, which had no money, so Russia had to lend it money for these supplies.

The planes were supplied to Angola from Baranavichy, where they were upgraded "up to the level of Su-30SM" at the 558th aircraft repair plant.

The following fact proves a political overtone: Belarus received several Su-30SMs only in 2019 when the issue of the airbase was finally removed from the agenda.

Meanwhile, Russians eventually agreed to supply only the Yak-130, a training aircraft that, although carry three tons of weapons under its wings, cannot be considered a replacement or a competitor to the fighter.

The point of the compact trainer aircraft is to train pilots for the latest fighters, while significantly saving on amortization. However, at the time the Yak-130 was delivered, Belarus simply did not have such fighters, which required experience for piloting.

Domestic and Russian experts praise the characteristics of the Yak-130 and consider it good - this aircraft can be considered an analogue of a strike fighter.

Military expert Egor Lebedok told Nasha Niva that a country like Belarus can solve attack tasks in a local conflict with 12 (there are already 11) aircraft. Moreover, he says these are airplanes, which we can maintain.

At the same time, Western analysts put Yak-130 far behind analogues from Taiwan, China and Korea.

"It has very low height gain rates, average manoeuvrability, low tactical altitude and subsonic speed, partially balanced by onboard electronics, sensors and access to advanced weaponry. Its poor flight performance suggests that it will not be able to prove itself in aerial combat," MilitaryMagazine reported about the Yak-130.

In addition to Belarus and the manufacturing country, there are such planes in poorer countries: Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos, Vietnam, Syria and Algeria.

The Ukrainians are training on the Czech L-39, which was produced until 1996 and may be considered obsolete. The Baltic countries have the same L-39. The Poles train on the Italian M-346, based on the Yak-130 (the company Alenia Aermacchi Leonardo S.p.A. first developed the Yak-130 together with Russia, but then withdrew from the deal and created its own training aircraft).