5 ms·

How do the economics of such a theft work? Would an item like that be worth much on the black market? Enough to risk being shot by the soldiers guarding the ai

How do the economics of such a theft work? Would an item like that be worth much on the black market? Enough to risk being shot by the soldiers guarding the airfield? Presumably having an insider would greatly reduce that risk.

mtgx 6y ago
Step 1: Send your CIA agents to steal it. Step 2: Make it look like common thieves did it. Step 3: Profit?
- dexen 6y ago
  You joke but there's a historical precedent - the story of Lunik[1], soviet spacecraft that was intercepted, examined, dismantled (!) and then put back together and moved forward, by CIA operatives. [1] https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol11no1/html/v11i1a04p_0001.htm https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intellig...
  - secfirstmd 6y ago
    Some other examples. Russia stole a sidewinder from the US. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19042850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19042850 Brits stole a towed acoustic array from the Russians https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a28794/1982-uk-sub-stole-soviet-sonar-device/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a28794/...
varjag 6y ago
These items have copious amounts of gold plated contacts and platinum/palladium capacitors. Many hundreds dollars of scrap value. EDIT: to people downvoting, selling stolen equipment for scrap value is extremely common in former USSR.
mhoad 6y ago
There is only a very small group of people with the skills, resources and motivations to do something like this and I am positive none of them happen to be random freelancing criminals.
- dxdm 6y ago
  Yeah, they're not criminals, they were framed! They're definitely not random, and while they're technically freelancing, they don't take any money in the end. You're also talking about the A-Team, right? :) Jokes aside, what do you know about the circumstances of this theft to make such a judgement? For all we know, security might have been quite lacking for reasons to do with incompetence and/or corruption.
  - xtiansimon 6y ago
    Well. At least Ivan hasn’t lost _another_ submarine!
  - mhoad 6y ago
    The strategic importance of what was specifically stolen and where it came from paint the most textbook picture of an intelligence operation that you are likely to see in a news headline. This isn’t at all like the collapse of the Soviet Union when shit of this scale would just randomly go missing. I assure you that Russia would have a lot invested in preventing this from happening and the level of planning and inside knowledge is going to instantly rule out anyone except a very small group of actors.
baybal2 6y ago
> How do the economics of such a theft work? Depends on the purchase price of copper at the local scrap dealer.
lmilcin 6y ago
This is very simple. It does not matter how expensive the stuff is as long as it can be sold for anything. It could even be sold for scrap. The people who steal stuff are not concerned about the value for the owner, they are only concerned about how much they can recover from it and the risk of being caught.

mtgx 6y ago

Step 1: Send your CIA agents to steal it. Step 2: Make it look like common thieves did it. Step 3: Profit?

dexen 6y ago
You joke but there's a historical precedent - the story of Lunik[1], soviet spacecraft that was intercepted, examined, dismantled (!) and then put back together and moved forward, by CIA operatives. [1] https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol11no1/html/v11i1a04p_0001.htm https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intellig...
- secfirstmd 6y ago
  Some other examples. Russia stole a sidewinder from the US. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19042850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19042850 Brits stole a towed acoustic array from the Russians https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a28794/1982-uk-sub-stole-soviet-sonar-device/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a28794/...

varjag 6y ago

These items have copious amounts of gold plated contacts and platinum/palladium capacitors. Many hundreds dollars of scrap value. EDIT: to people downvoting, selling stolen equipment for scrap value is extremely common in former USSR.

mhoad 6y ago

There is only a very small group of people with the skills, resources and motivations to do something like this and I am positive none of them happen to be random freelancing criminals.

dxdm 6y ago
Yeah, they're not criminals, they were framed! They're definitely not random, and while they're technically freelancing, they don't take any money in the end. You're also talking about the A-Team, right? :) Jokes aside, what do you know about the circumstances of this theft to make such a judgement? For all we know, security might have been quite lacking for reasons to do with incompetence and/or corruption.
- xtiansimon 6y ago
  Well. At least Ivan hasn’t lost _another_ submarine!
- mhoad 6y ago
  The strategic importance of what was specifically stolen and where it came from paint the most textbook picture of an intelligence operation that you are likely to see in a news headline. This isn’t at all like the collapse of the Soviet Union when shit of this scale would just randomly go missing. I assure you that Russia would have a lot invested in preventing this from happening and the level of planning and inside knowledge is going to instantly rule out anyone except a very small group of actors.

baybal2 6y ago

> How do the economics of such a theft work? Depends on the purchase price of copper at the local scrap dealer.

lmilcin 6y ago

This is very simple. It does not matter how expensive the stuff is as long as it can be sold for anything. It could even be sold for scrap. The people who steal stuff are not concerned about the value for the owner, they are only concerned about how much they can recover from it and the risk of being caught.