- 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
Pepsi could’ve finally given that kid a jet and had a PR boost on the cheap, although not a Harier
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
It’s gonna be called Bottom Gun and be all about his career in shirtless beach volleyball
“Top Gun: Power Bottom”
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.
Considering they don’t fly. Pretty hard.
Harder than just making regular drones, I would think.
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?
