New Soviet MIGS to Cuba, U.S. Confirms

The Soviet Union, in an action likely to have more political impact than military consequences, has begun supplying one of its newest warplanes, the MIG-29, to Cuba, the State Department confirmed Wednesday.

The move gives new urgency to American concerns about Moscow’s military help to Latin American nations. The issue seems certain to be raised by President Bush when he meets Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev at the U.S.-Soviet talks in Malta on Dec. 2-3.

The MIG-29 is primarily a defensive rather than an attack weapon. The new aircraft are intended to “upgrade Cuban air defense capabilities,” a State Department official said, by replacing Cuba’s aging force of 20-year-old MIG-23s. The number of MIG-29s involved is not known but is reportedly small, about a dozen operational planes plus two trainers.

“We see no Cuban need for such high-performance aircraft,” State Department spokesman Richard Bouchard said in confirming a report in the Washington Times of the arrival of the first MIG-29s.

“We are making our concerns known to the Soviets,” Bouchard added. “Other countries in the region do not have similar equipment. Cuba does not face a threat from the United States.”

The incident comes against the background of Gorbachev’s assertion that the Soviet Union stopped sending war materiel to Nicaragua last year but that it has little control over the activities of Cuba and other Soviet Bloc states.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, rejecting that posture, repeatedly has called on the Kremlin to stop sending arms to the Western Hemisphere. On Monday, in an address to the Organization of American States after he had seen intelligence reports on the MIG-29 deliveries, Baker said:

“The Soviet Union bears a special responsibility (in Central America) because its arms and money, moving through Cuba and Nicaragua, continue to support violence, destruction and war. Shipments of Soviet rocket-propelled grenades to the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebels in El Salvador) are incompatible with the new thinking” of Gorbachev’s foreign policy.

“Soviet behavior toward Cuba and Central America remains the biggest obstacle to a full, across-the-board improvement in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union,” he added.

The first MIG-29 was sighted by intelligence agencies in Cuba late last month, and a squadron of about 12 of the twin-tailed fighters is expected. Cuba’s present air defenses include between 30 and 50 MIG-23s.

The MIG-29, which closely resembles the U.S. Navy’s F-18, was introduced four years ago. It could be fitted for offensive ground support missions, but its “look-down, see-down” radar and other equipment make it mainly a defensive weapon, according to the standard reference work, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft.