Looks like Ukraine got new fighters but keeping the country of origin hush.
Ukraine Military Aviation
- Thread starter Innominate
- Start date
Unlike providing ATGMs or MANPADs or even antiship Missiles, simply providing the aircraft will not work.
And that too aircraft which only Russia or Ukarine can service. Now with the aircraft repair plants attacked in Ukraine, Ukarine during the ongoing crisis cannot service those aircrafts.
Let's look at the possible options
1. Mig29 of Hungary. Retired sometime in 2010. Less than 10 were in flying conditions by then. Total fleet was of 28 aircraft. But any reactivation can only be done either in Russia or Belarus. Ukarine facilities are non functional.
2. Mig29 of Iraq: USA has access to 17 Mig29 who have good lives left but their engines need overhaul. Airframe are under storage in Iraq and will also need lots of work. Further problems like they are property of Iraq, and it will be unwilling to be a part of that conflict against Russia.
3. Mig 29 of Moldova : Upto 12 Mig29 can be there in reserve , last overhauled by Ukraine itself, but have been since grounded due to spares problem. Will need servicing and engine overhaul to get back to service.
4. Mig29 of Romania : 21 Aircrafts stored and withdrawn from service since 2003 due to lack of funds for its overhaul. Engine need replacement. Again not operational
5. Mig29s in USA: There are flying Mig29s in USA and some held by private contractors. Numbers unclear as of now. Maybe a dozen in flying conditions at most. More aircrafts stored too. Maybe upto 30.
6. Mig29 of Bulgaria: These 15-19 aircrafts are the best shot in my opinion. As Bulgaria already has 8 Viper F16 on order as their replacements. Atleast a dozen are in flying conditions.
7. Mig29 of Slovakia: They still have the operational Mig29 fleet of atleast 11 airframes. And F16V on order for their replacement. These along with the Bulgarian fleet are the best options.
8. Mig29 of Poland : Now they might be the most talked about but it's actually tricky. Half of their fleet recently got some upgrades to keep functioning till 2028. And beside the token forces of NATO airforces deployed in Baltics, it's the Polish Airforce which will have to take care of Kaliningrad, Belarus and Russia. And out of 44+ airframes, less then 30 are serviceable now. Seeming that the squadron which wasn't upgraded can be transferred, that would be 12-15 Aircrafts. But Poland will need replacements for them. And they don't have any coming straight away.
NATO can provide Mig29s to Ukarine, but they will not be so significant in the numbers to make a dent on Russians. Flying near Belarus borders wouldn't also be safe actually.
The best course of action is to pump in funds to Ukraine defence industries to scrape what engineering capabilities regarding servicing and tools it can , and then only more than 50 or so airframes grounded can be bought back into service.
I agree with a lot of what you said and yes Ukraine fighters pretty much can't do much in the northern areas but as we saw with Ukraine Mi-24s Russia has a lot of gaps that their IADS can't cover. Also as Ukraine gets their hands on more advanced and heavier US/NATO weapon system that can target Russian arty and IADS inside Ukraine those fighters can be used in air support role inside Ukraine albeit in a limited role. If anything Ukraine should use their fighters to attack Russian positions in Transnistria who are isolated right now from Russia.
Lol. Ok so officially this is what went down...
It looks like they disassembled these fighters and called them "spare parts" for current Ukraine fighters.
It looks like they disassembled these fighters and called them "spare parts" for current Ukraine fighters.
Russian Navy still has ships in black sea which can be targetted from older stocks of Harpoon/Exocets/RBS15/Otomat anti ship missiles in reserve stocks of Western nations. They are low hanging fruits. As much of the maintenance will have to be done in west for activation of the missiles. RQ4 are operating over Black sea, additional surveillance from West can provide target for those Missiles.
Russians loosing 1000 tanks will not hurt them much. But losing 3-4 capital ships will be a big problem for them. Very big.
If they are not in flying conditions, they can anyway supply them as spares.
Many Western nations in 80s and 90s supplied grounded aircrafts as spares to many nations as it avoids lots of law works. Those deal end user agreements were left loose and those nations made those aircrafts serviceable again.
So when are these wonderbirds going to fly sweetie?
Christmas?
This or the next one?
BTW what's happened to them MiG-29s that Poland was going to export to Ukraine via a lot of 3rd party busybodies? When's that likely to happen?
I don't think anyone here would be surprised if by the time the war's over Ukraine would've shot down twice or thrice the number of planes, drones & hptrs the Russian armed forces are supposed to possess.
Btw - Ukraine, it's armed forces & the comedian have been having it good ever since the war began. It's not just a good day yesterday or today.
Looks similar to the Iranian Arash 2, might have a range of 1,000 km.
en.defence-ua.com
Iranian Arash-2 Kamikaze Drones: Capabilities and Specifications | Defense Express
The Arash-2, also known as the Kian 2, is an Iranian kamikaze drone that may pose a greater threat than the Shahed-136
en.defence-ua.com
Ukrainian Raybird-3 drones were purchased for the “Army of Drones”. They are able to fly continuously during the day
As part of the Army of Drones project, the Ukrainian military received two Ukrainian-made Raybird-3 unmanned aerial systems
babel.ua
800km range.
UKRJET UJ-22 (Airborne) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS)
Page details technical specifications, development, and operational history of the UKRJET UJ-22 (Airborne) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) including pictures.
www.militaryfactory.com