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Yes, nice comment. I remember being part of the staff of NATO's only MIG squadron during military service. People considered a MIG within NATO a sensation, whi

Yes, nice comment. I remember being part of the staff of NATO's only MIG squadron during military service. People considered a MIG within NATO a sensation, while I was simply bored. I saw them every day in droves. ;)

KptMarchewa 5y ago
Poland still operates MIG-29s, as well as extremely outdated Su-22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inven...
- zhan_eg 5y ago
  Well, when talking about NATO countries, MIGs and older aircrafts - Romania and Croatia still operate MIG-21s [1] :) And MIG-29s are present also in the Bulgarian [2] and Slovak [3] airforce too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21#Current_operators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21#Curren... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force#Current_in... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Air_Force#Current_inven...
- neurotech1 5y ago
  The Romanian MiG-21s [0], Polish MiG-21s (when in service, before retirement) and MiG-29s along with the Bulgarian MiG-29s were upgraded to NATO standards. The primary upgrades were the radios and IFF transponder. I'm not sure if they all included It is widely rumored that certain spare parts for NATO MiG-29s are actually made in US, from sources initially supporting the Adversary training missions of the 57th Wing Nellis AFB and US Navy Adversary training missions, including TOPGUN department. This is primarily for the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21_variants#Upgrade_programmes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-2... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57th_Wing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57th_Wing [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Development_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Dev...
mc32 5y ago
Apparently prior to getting their hands on a MiG-25 from a defector who took one to Japan, many in the western military and intelligence communities envisioned it to have super avionic powers (that persisted for a long time in the civilian sphere). They thought it was agile and fast. What they didn't know is that it could only sustain those speeds for short spurts (else the engines suffered from metal fatigue due to temperature) and the maneuverability they envisioned from the geometry proved to be false (it had a very wide turning radius)...

KptMarchewa 5y ago

Poland still operates MIG-29s, as well as extremely outdated Su-22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Air_Force#Current_inven...

zhan_eg 5y ago
Well, when talking about NATO countries, MIGs and older aircrafts - Romania and Croatia still operate MIG-21s [1] :) And MIG-29s are present also in the Bulgarian [2] and Slovak [3] airforce too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21#Current_operators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21#Curren... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Air_Force#Current_in... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Air_Force#Current_inventory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Air_Force#Current_inven...
neurotech1 5y ago
The Romanian MiG-21s [0], Polish MiG-21s (when in service, before retirement) and MiG-29s along with the Bulgarian MiG-29s were upgraded to NATO standards. The primary upgrades were the radios and IFF transponder. I'm not sure if they all included It is widely rumored that certain spare parts for NATO MiG-29s are actually made in US, from sources initially supporting the Adversary training missions of the 57th Wing Nellis AFB and US Navy Adversary training missions, including TOPGUN department. This is primarily for the MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21_variants#Upgrade_programmes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-2... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57th_Wing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/57th_Wing [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Development_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aviation_Warfighting_Dev...

mc32 5y ago

Apparently prior to getting their hands on a MiG-25 from a defector who took one to Japan, many in the western military and intelligence communities envisioned it to have super avionic powers (that persisted for a long time in the civilian sphere). They thought it was agile and fast. What they didn't know is that it could only sustain those speeds for short spurts (else the engines suffered from metal fatigue due to temperature) and the maneuverability they envisioned from the geometry proved to be false (it had a very wide turning radius)...