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> 1. This is kind of funny when you think about it. I mean is Russia going to all of a sudden be very confused and think that the Americans gave Ukraine MIG-29s
by brimble 5y ago
> 1. This is kind of funny when you think about it. I mean is Russia going to all of a sudden be very confused and think that the Americans gave Ukraine MIG-29s? No. Poland did. What's the point of the roundabout way of doing this? Maybe Poland is worried about intermediate range missiles targeting Polish airbases. But that seems like an escalation that Russia isn't interested in, unless they're in it for all the marbles.
I'd guess the US is gonna put some resources into refurbing and arming these planes, so it's simpler to just give them to the US up-front and send them to a US airbase.
- petre 5y agoThey're most probably already modified to use NATO armament.
- brimble 5y agoIf so, IMO that's where things get really interesting. If these things can equip modern NATO weapons, and (here's a big if) if they've been retrofitted with good enough sensor & comm suites to use them, then this transfer takes on a whole new dimension. I've been assuming they're stuck on Soviet weapons and with upgraded, but still outdated, electronics, but if that's not the case, it changes things a lot.
- rich_sasha 5y agoI believe the weapons are Soviet still, in fact they have been harder and harder to source, since Russia (surprise!) didn’t want to sell them to Poland, whose only conceivable aggressor is Russia itself. Comms etc not sure, these must have been somewhat matched.
- Ancapistani 5y agoI don't have a reference handy, but I recall reading that Poland had already begun to transfer R-73 air-to-air missiles to Ukraine. Those are Russian missiles designed for use on the MiG-29.