- The US has purchased 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan, the Kyiv Post reports.
- Kazakhstan, a historic ally of Russia, is engaging more with Western nations.
- The planes could be used for spare parts or deployed as decoys in conflict regions, the Post said.
The US has acquired 81 obsolete Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan, the Kyiv Post reported.
Kazakhstan, which is upgrading its air fleet, auctioned off 117 Soviet-era fighter and bomber aircraft, including MiG-31 interceptors, MiG-27 fighter bombers, MiG-29 fighters, and Su-24 bombers from the 1970s and 1980s.
The declared sale value was one billion Kazakhstani tenge, said the Post, or $2.26 million, equalling an average value for each plane of $19,300.
The US purchased 81 of the aged, unusable warplanes, said the Ukrainian Telegram channel Insider UA, per the Post.
The motive behind the US purchase remains undisclosed, said the Post, but it raised the possibility of their use in Ukraine, where similar aircraft are in service.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the reason is as simple as buying them so Russia can’t.
The missiles we’d use to shoot down these flying tubs of shit probably cost more than buying them lmao
The “I’m gonna give you $100 to fuck off” school of military strategy.
Look up the Soviet era Night Witches.
They had the worst possible aircraft, and managed to use them to become a feared weapon.
Well aware, I’ve seen one of their planes in person actually. Nobody worth talking to needs convincing that crummy planes are still dangerous, I was mostly just joking about how expensive American munitions are.
I see and concede the point. Have fun.
This is one of those stories that Hollywood could use with female leads, no need to shoehorn a female cast into other plots.
That’s actually one of my Hollywood pet peeves.
There are plenty of heroic folks whose stories haven’t been told. No need to recycle James Bond as a woman when you have Virginia Hall
Yeah that and they’re probably useful as hanger queens for Ukraine
The article frames them as garbage, but they’re still 4th gen fighters. Same vintage as the F-16 and F-15, and the US still operates tons of those. 4th gen stuff is a whole lot cheaper to run than 5th gen, and that will probably keep 4th gen stuff flying for a long time.
Granted, they’re probably not very well maintained, and the F-16 and F-15 have gotten upgrades over the decades and these probably didn’t. The US doesn’t have spare parts to keep them maintained (except by cannibalizing one plane to keep the other one running), and any weapon hardpoints would need to be adapted to US missiles. There probably isn’t any interesting intelligence to be gained from them anymore. So, yeah, spare parts for Ukraine seems most likely.
Pepsi could’ve finally given that kid a jet and had a PR boost on the cheap, although not a Harier
Probably for spare parts and then used as dummy aircraft after that, all for Ukraine. For less than 20k per plane, that’s pretty damn good. And Ukraine could certainly use the parts. Though I hope we also donate a considerable amount of our aging out planes and tanks. They’d serve Ukraine well and get second, well-deserved life overseas.
They’d make good targets, too. Put 'em out on a tank/artillery/bomb/gun range and punch holes.
Theyre gunna be rented out as props in a forthcoming “Top Gun” prequel.
You’re joking, but the movie industry and the military have been working hand-in-hand for a very long time, which includes giving Hollywood military equipment and vehicles to work with. Top Gun itself was given access to Navy ships, planes and other assets in exchange for making a movie that rehabilitated the Navy’s image in a post-Vietnam world.
And it worked too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military–entertainment_complex
How hard would it be to turn these into drones?
When the US retired the F4, a number of the planes were converted into target drones. Probably the bigger hurdle would be to get these planes airworthy again.
The goal was to remove Soviet era planes, and thus a customer to Russia, and open up space and provide a budget for Western arms.
The article calls the planes unusable, so I don’t think Ukraine has enough spare parts to fix up 81 outdated planes just to blow them up. They’ll probably strip out everything usable and use the more modern husks as decoys. That being said, I have a feeling Ukraine will scrape together enough parts to get some of the older models flying and cause some embarrassing security incidents and IFF shenanigans. Finally, there’s the possibility that other former Soviet countries can pool the resources to refurbish at least a few aircraft, which would be good timing after the latest US aid package and donated F-16s entering service in the next year.
Agreed, you put these suckers out on the airfield and they’ll be great decoys. Probably cost less than the missiles that hit them.
They did that sort of thing in WWII all the time. Fake airplanes, inflatable tanks, all kinds of stuff. My grandfather worked for De Havilland in WWII as an aircraft inspector and the roof of the factory had fake bomb damage painted on it.
Considering they don’t fly. Pretty hard.
Harder than just making regular drones, I would think.
Probably. Even if they were airworthy, they’re going to cost maybe a bit less than an equivalent purpose-built drone, not counting in R&D to figure out how to do it. There’s a lot of extra systems in there for the pilot, and you can make an 80s-level radar way, way, cheaper and lighter with modern tech, so all of that is wasted.
Going by this article:
https://www.defensemirror.com/news/30871/Russia_Tests_MiG_31_Jet_with_Fly_By_Wire_Control_System
The MiG-31 was only recently tested in Russia to have a fly-by-wire system. That would mean these original jets had the controls directly actuating the hydrolics to run the control surfaces. So you’d either have to convert fly-by-wire, or rig up something for the computer to use servos to control it.
Considering that Congress just (fucking finally) handed the President a whole lot of money in “Presidential Drawdown Authority”. I suspect the conversation is going to go a whole lot like:
US DoD: We bought all these former Soviet shit-boxes to prevent them being used by Russia and to build goodwill with Kazakhstan.
US President: Hey, look at all these former Soviet shitboxes the DoD has sitting in inventory. We don’t need these. I’m giving them to Ukraine who can find a use for them.proceeds to resell to Ukraine with a mark up
That’s what freedom is for, to charge your clients whatever you want
I mean, the US could do that, but it’s kinda pointless. Ukraine would just be buying them with money that the US Government gave them in the aid package. It would mean the US Treasury moving money from the “aid going to Ukraine” column to the “US DoD budget” column. Sure, some of the aid is structured as loans. However, the President has the power to forgive half of those loans by the end of the year and the next President will have the power to forgive the rest of those loans in 2026. Unless the war suddenly ends and Ukraine suddenly finds a shit-ton of money somewhere, those loans are just going to be forgiven. As there is just no way they will ever be paid back.
Makes sense, don’t want Russia to get their hands on them.
How the hell did Eric Prince not get in on his first?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Given Ukraine’s continued reliance on Soviet-era weapons, the aircraft could either serve as a source of spare parts or be strategically deployed as decoys at airfields, said the Post.
But the Central Asian country’s efforts to upgrade its military capabilities coincide with its increasing engagement with Western nations, signaling a shift away from historical ties with Moscow, per the Kyiv Post’s analysis.
Kazakhstan and Western nations are showing increasing cooperation, with recent diplomatic engagements including a visit from UK Foreign Minister David Cameron to Astana, the capital.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the central Asian country in March 2023, where he said that the US “strongly supports Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, its independence, its territorial integrity,” according to news agency AFP.
One notable Russian TV commentator, Vladimir Solovyov, said that his country “must pay attention to the fact that Kazakhstan is the next problem because the same Nazi processes can start there as in Ukraine.”
Agreements on trade, education, environment, and mineral supplies reflect the deepening ties between Kazakhstan and Western nations as they navigate geopolitical challenges posed by neighboring countries like Russia, China, Afghanistan, and Iran.
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