The years pass and the situation becomes more and more critical in Algeria. Passing from one crisis to another, Algiers continues its momentum of over-armament as if the military junta in power were preparing a third world war with always in sight the Moroccan neighbor.
The Chief of Staff of the Algerian National People’s Army (ANP), General Saïd Chengriha, received on Thursday the director of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation of the Russian Federation, Dimitrii Chougaev.
According to the statement from the Algerian Ministry of National Defense, the two sides discussed bilateral military and technical cooperation, as well as regional and international issues of common interest.
Dimitri Chougaev’s visit to Algeria is part of the highly developed military cooperation between the two countries.
Algiers is seeking to modernize its army and equip itself with Russian stealth fighters, the fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-75 Checkmate.
This meeting of Dimitry Chougaev with General Saïd Chengriha, precedes the trip of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Moscow, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Abdelmadjid Tebboune will also participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Indeed, Algeria is strengthening its positions along the demarcation lines with its western neighbour, by positioning more military contingents, more weapons, more armored vehicles, even at the Tindouf camps. , where the Algerian military power sequesters thousands of people, outside international laws on the protection of camp populations, who have been living in inhuman conditions for several decades.It is in this sense that the Algerian regime negotiated a $12 billion military contract with Russia. Specialists talk about the acquisition by Algeria of the Sukhoi fighter, the Su-75 Checkmate. Algeria also plans, according to statements by Saïd Chengriha, to become the first international buyer of this stealth fighter. A weapon certainly sophisticated, but which shows a curious delay and lacks convincing tests which come to cast a little shade on the effectiveness of this hunter especially after the commercial snub of the Su-57. However, this weapon is basically intended and designed to compete directly with the American F-22 and F-35 from Lockheed Martin.
These orders from Russia are also part of the modernization project for the Algerian armies suffering from aging equipment and the obsolescence of almost all the military arsenal, stored in desert expanses plagued by sand and rust. For many observers, the Algerian army needs a general modernization.
Moreover, this was clearly shown during the parade of the Algerian armed forces for the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the country’s independence. A parade that made more than one specialist say that Algiers lacks new weapon systems, since Algeria still uses old BMP-1 and 2, which are real survivors of the Cold War, used today today on Ukrainian soil showing all their limits.
With this in mind, the Algerian generals draw on the country’s monetary reserves and multiply orders from other countries, such as France, China, India, South Africa… with the stated aim of renewing all the lines of its army, which has been deploying for several weeks on the borders with Morocco in a unilateral escalation of a latent conflict with Rabat, which is still reaching out to its eastern neighbor to come to Morocco to talk directly and play its cards on the table in order to settle all the disputes which divide the two neighboring countries.
The date for the first operation of this combat aircraft was set in 2023, while it was reported that this was postponed to 2024.
On November 14, 2021, it was reported that production of several prototypes of the “Kesh Mat” fighter had begun at the factory that produced the Sukhoi 57 aircraft.
On August 16, 2022, United Aircraft Corporation reported that it plans to build 4 prototypes, with flight tests to take place as early as 2024.
