Russia and Kazakhstan Make Deals on Air Defense, New Jets

Russia and Kazakhstan have signed several potentially significant defense deals, evidence that in spite of Kazakhstan's moves toward greater cooperation with Western and East Asian militaries and defense industries, that Russia remains the country's most important military partner.

One deal involves a new Russian jet:

Kazakh Air Force pilots will start using the Russian-made Yak-130 advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft next spring, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

The first flights will be a sort of "getting the feeling" of the aircraft.

That phrasing -- "will start using" -- is pretty vague, and the rest of the story doesn't explain more. But the Yak-130 is a trainer designed to "replicate the characteristics of various Russian generation 4+ fighters as well as Sukhoi T-50 fifth generation aircraft." What's interesting is that Kazakhstan doesn't currently own any 4+ or 5th-generation aircraft (they only have 4th generation fighters like the MiG-29 and Su-27), so this suggests that they are looking for some more advanced fighters, and that they will likely be Russian.

In another agreement, the two countries agreed to form a joint air-defense system:

"We have agreed to create a joint regional air defense network, which is similar to that of Russia and Belarus," [chief of Kazakh air defenses Lt. Gen. Alexander] Sorokin said, adding that the Kazakh Air Force would be responsible for defending Russian airspace along the border with Kazakhstan.

"The creation of this network envisions free-of-charge deliveries of Russian S-300 air defense systems to Kazakhstan," the general said.

Kazakhstan's air defense heretofore has been oriented toward protecting its major cities. It's not clear whether this is part of a previously announced plan to create an integrated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) air defense system, but it stands to reason that it does. And so, it would appear that Kazakhstan gets some free-of-charge S-300s (to add to the 40 systems Kazakhstan has already bought) in exchange for its help broadening Russian air defense. Anyway, these sorts of agreements are only done between countries that seriously trust one another (note how complicated it's been to come up with a joint NATO missile defense system). Russia also offered to help Kazakhstan improve its command-and-control systems. What does all this mean? RIA Novosti's analysis pretty much says it all:

Russia and Kazakhstan have maintained strong defense ties since the breakup of the Soviet Union, although Astana has vastly improved its relations with the United States and NATO in the past decade.