A Ukraine Miscellany (III): MiG's to Ukraine?

The US wanted to send fighter aircraft to Ukraine but finally someone realised that Ukrainian pilots are trained on Soviet and Russian models – Sukhoi's and MiG's. And so sending them F-16's and the like will do little good. I'm sure they could fly them but they won't be proficient without training.

So the next task is to get someone else to send them the MiG's and other aircraft they might use. Poland is the logical choice as it still has almost two dozen MiG-29's in its fleet. While the negotiations are not yet public I'm sure the US can offer a very attractive deal. Give the planes to Ukraine and the US will sell Poland state of the art American aircraft. They'll get a new NATO-compatible component to their air fleet and Wall Street and the military contractors will make a lot of money – and bind Warsaw even closer to the United States. Even if they have to give Poland the jets at a deep discount, it won't be a problem. Wall Street and the defense contractors will get their money. The difference will be made up by the American taxpayer.

Putin's immediate concern will of course be to eliminate all airstrips that these aircraft could utilise. And if the planes are stationed across the border in Poland, Romania, or elsewhere, their bases will be reckoned as legitimate targets for Russian defensive measures. There are already stories circulating about Ukrainian jets operating out of Romania and Moscow is not happy about it – even now, the war is creeping into a larger conflict.

The US has engineering teams that are good at quickly rebuilding runways and they might send them incognito to Ukraine if needed.

The other possibility for NATO is to do what the Russians did in Korea – fly the planes anonymously and under radio silence – but that's still assuming they can get their hands on any. It was in MiG Alley that you had American and Soviet pilots engaged in air-to-air combat – a unique episode in the Cold War. The Americans might have the Poles or Romanians do the same over Ukraine, pretending to be Ukrainians. It's an awful risk but it's one that might be taken if the situation grows desperate. And yet again, if launched from NATO territory it won't take long for the Russians to figure it out. Even ground spies could gather that information. You can't hide fighter jets taking off as anyone knows who has spent time around them. I remember my time at Aviano AB in Italy. There were always civilians watching from the highway. Some were just curious. Others were probably taking notes.

I think that Stinger missiles have the potential to cripple the Russian Air Force, but we'll see. Once again, NATO is clearly at war with Russia but it's waging its war by proxy.

Right now, it sounds like Poland is reticent to give up its MiG's but there's going to be a lot of pressure put on them to do so. The other possibility lies with Romania which has revamped and updated MiG-21's but I don't think these will stand up to Russia's late model jets. Slovakia only has about 10 MiG's and so it's doubtful they'll be willing to give them up.

This is still a developing story and depending on which direction it goes it could lead to a widening of the war. Let's hope not. If NATO truly wants peace they won't send Ukraine any jets – but I don't believe peace is the goal. Not everyone wants a direct confrontation with Russia but they do want a prolonged war that will break the Putin regime. As far as the Ukrainians, the NATO-American policy is simple – let them bleed and offer up good footage for the news cameras.