quote:
Like you said the real solution is to acquire all the Mig-29s and Su-27s that you can source. The Slovakian Mig-29s still haven’t been sent I believe I read somewhere and that’s a squadron worth of aircraft and the Slovak Migs have been upgraded with all glass cockpits and a new radar. Poland has 23 Mig-29s still. That could be solved just by going to the boneyard and pulling out a few f-16s for Poland or giving them aircraft from units that are transitioning to new aircraft. They don’t have time to learn on western systems anymore. They will have to win or lose this war flying the aircraft they already know back and forth.

I mostly agree, but we also don't know how for sure how long the war will last. If we had started training Ukrainian pilots at the beginning of the invasion a year ago, Ukraine would have experienced F-16 pilots by now. Late is still better than never.

I also wonder if Slovakia will ultimately give their MiG-29s without the political cover of other NATO members providing jets. That's why I think that Poland and Slovakia give their MiGs in conjunction with a general NATO decision to give Ukraine jets, which should be F-16s.

I also wonder if there are ways to source some MiG-29s and SU-27s from outside NATO. For example, Azerbaijan has a dozen or so MiG-29s, and they are pretty much a true enemy of Russia at this point -- perhaps the Azeris might like some American jets?

And I still wonder whether MiG-29s could somehow be rigged to fire Storm Shadow missiles in the same way they were jerry-rigged to fire HARM.

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Posted by GOP_Tiger

Baton Rouge

Member since Jan 2005

18092 posts

Posted on 2/11/23 at 8:32 am to GOP_Tiger

Trying to answer my own question, I came across yesterday's article in The Times about possible Harpoon/Storm Shadow deliveries to Ukraine: LINK

quote:
Ukraine is prepared to use British long-range missiles to hit Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, in a potential major escalation of western involvement in the war.

Rishi Sunak promised to send Ukraine more military aid following a visit by President Zelensky to Britain this week. Discussions are now taking place over whether this should include Harpoon anti-ship missiles or air-to-surface Storm Shadows.

Ukrainian defence sources confirmed to The Times that Kyiv would be prepared to use the missiles to strike Crimea following a warning from Zelensky that longer-range weapons from western allies would strike “deep in the occupied territories”.

quote:
Talks are now taking place to decide exactly how many British long-range missiles could be sent, despite previous concerns that enabling Ukraine to launch cross-border strikes on Russia could escalate the conflict.

quote:
Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute, a defence think tank ... added that Harpoon anti-ship missiles, which have already been given to Ukraine by Denmark, could be adapted to be fired from trucks, although they would be less accurate when attacking ground targets. He said it would also be possible to fire Storm Shadow missiles from the ground, but it was more likely that these would be fitted to Ukrainian aircraft.

Kaushal cautioned, however, that sending Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine would mean Britain going further than the US. Biden has repeatedly refused to provide Army Tactical Missile System projectiles, which have a shorter range.

“Diplomatically, that would put the Biden administration in a very difficult position,” he said. “I imagine that is something policymakers in Whitehall are not necessarily keen to do. It would also enable proper, cross-border strikes against Russia.”

So, the experts at RUSI (who should know) apparently think that Storm Shadow could indeed be rigged to be fired from Ukrainian MiGs.

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Posted by AU86

Member since Aug 2009

22502 posts

Posted on 2/11/23 at 9:11 am to GOP_Tiger

quote:
I also wonder if Slovakia will ultimately give their MiG-29s without the political cover of other NATO members providing jets. That's why I think that Poland and Slovakia give their MiGs in conjunction with a general NATO decision to give Ukraine jets, which should be F-16s.

I believe that when Slovakia made the decision, the Czech Republic offered to provide cover/protection/ defense for Slovakia with their jets/airforce.

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