Syria taking delivery of the MiG-31E?

[TinWing]

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070619073536.0v1irj88&show_article=1

This does seem to be a very odd bit of news - and perhaps it will prove to be just as false as the previous Su-27 rumor?

I am entirely puzzled by the claim that the MiG-31 "is capable of striking 24 different targets simultaneously?"

Overall, it has been a promising week for the future prospects of Middle East peace. I can only hope that the entire Syrian MiG-31 issue has been misinterpreted by the press.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Can you imagine the drag from carrying 24 R-33 AAMs?

 

[flateric]

May be Assad just want some for his weekend flights to stratosphere...you never can be sure about this...
News over here as always - Rosoboronexport's chief Chemezov denies, sources close to Sokol factory and insiders from Rosoboronexport confirm that contract exist, but still were no deliveries. 4-5 total, the same quantity we gonna to sell Kazakhstan.

 

[Matej]

Can you imagine the drag from carrying 24 R-33 AAMs?

Maybe the aircraft will be flying only when all rocket engines of R-33 are activated... ;D

 

[CammNut]

Here's the Syria story as it came out at Paris...

The first of eight MiG-31 interceptors will be handed over soon, the first export order for the type, which is already in use with the Russian air force and has been inherited by Kazakhstan. The aircraft will be drawn from stocks of semi-completed airframes held at the NAZ Sokol factory. Vladimir Barkovsky, head of RSK MiG’s Mikoyan Engineering Centre, says that an earlier offer for MiG-25 operators to trade in their aircraft for MiG-31s remains open, and he adds that negotiations are continuing with users including Algeria, Libya and Syria.

As for the 24 targets, I seem to remember that the Russian use the MiG-31 as a kind of armed AWACS, so I suspect the radar is capable of maintaining fire-control quality tracks on 24 targets that could then be engaged with missiles fired from other aircraft.