MiG-29

2022 - 3 - 9

Post cover — Image courtesy of "ABC News"

US rejects Poland's offer to help bolster Ukraine's air power with MiG ... (ABC News)

Ukraine has been pleading for more warplanes as Russian attacks continue; Poland wanted to hand off 28 of the Soviet-made MiG jets; Russia say supporting ...

No country has been publicly identified as a transit point, but Kosovo, a non-aligned country that is very friendly with the United States, has been mentioned as one of several nations that might be willing to serve as a middleman. Under one scenario that has been floated, Poland would deliver the fighter jets to the US base in Germany, where they would be repainted and flown to a non-NATO, non-European Union country. One begins with the "donation" of Poland's MiGs to the United States, as Poland announced on Tuesday. The Polish Foreign Ministry announced the plan in a statement, which said the jets would be delivered to Ramstein free of charge. A transfer of the MiGs to Ukraine is fraught with complications as neither NATO nor the European Union want to be seen as directly involved in the transaction, which will significantly raise already extreme tensions with Russia. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Poland's proposal to deliver the jets to the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany raised the concerning prospect of jets departing from a US and NATO base to fly into airspace contested by Russia.

NATO's Polish MiG-29 Fiasco (The Wall Street Journal)

The White House divides the alliance and signals weakness to Putin by refusing to let Warsaw send fighter jets to Ukraine.

- Opinion: Iran’s Master Class in Evading Sanctions - Opinion: Injecting Some Insulin Reality - Opinion: Iran’s Master Class in Evading Sanctions - Opinion: Injecting Some Insulin Reality You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. On Tuesday Poland said it could transfer around two dozen MIG-29 jet fighters to a U.S. base in Germany, and then to Ukraine, whose pilots can fly the Soviet-era planes with minimal training.

Pentagon Opposes Sending MiG-29 Fighter Jets To Ukraine (Forbes)

The Pentagon came out against efforts to craft a deal to give Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine, casting the idea as a high-risk, low-reward proposition.

The United States weighed asking Poland—a former Soviet bloc country—to give its MiG-29s to Ukraine in exchange for U.S.-made F-16s, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that NATO members had the “green light” to give jets to Ukraine, but the plan has faced some logistical hurdles. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also encouraged the Biden Administration to find a way to transfer planes to Ukraine. Where will they land?” The idea could also clash with NATO’s aim to back the Ukrainian government without directly joining a war against Russia. Polish President Andrzej Duda said last week “we are not sending any jets to Ukraine because that would open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict,” and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday didn’t offer to give its planes directly to Ukraine, instead effectively asking the United States to serve as an intermediary. Shortly after the war began, EU security chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc had crafted a deal for member states to provide Ukraine with used Soviet warplanes, but it quickly collapsed. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday warned of “a number of challenging practical questions, including how the planes would actually be transferred from Poland to Ukraine. … Are they going to fly? The Polish government said Tuesday it’s willing to transfer its more than two dozen MiG-29 fighter jets—a type that is also flown by Ukraine—to the U.S. at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where they would presumably be made available to the Ukrainian air force.

Why is Poland giving MiG-29 fighter jets to the US – and is it a risky move? (unknown)

Will decision to give jets to US for expected transfer to Ukrainian forces make a significant difference to war with Russia?

Western countries have been supplying increasingly sophisticated arms to Ukraine so it can fight off the Russian advance. Poland had been expecting the US to supply it with more advanced F-16s to fill the gap. Poland said on Tuesday evening that it was willing to hand over its fleet of 28 MiG 29s to the US – which was in turn expected to pass them on to the Ukrainian air force.

US rejects Poland’s offer to send MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine (unknown)

Pentagon says Polish proposal to transfer Soviet-era planes to Kyiv via US base in Germany is not tenable.

“I will continue to convey the very strong bipartisan view of this committee that these planes need to get to Ukraine,” she told the panel. “So I think that actually was a surprise move by the Poles,” she said. The United States has rejected Poland’s offer to send its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via a US airbase in Germany, saying the proposal raised “serious concerns” for the entire NATO alliance.

Polish offer to donate MiG-29 jets to Ukraine took US officials by surprise (unknown)

An offer from Poland to donate MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine took US officials by surprise on Tuesday, raising fears the move could draw NATO allies into ...

To maintain the pretense that NATO and the EU are not direct participants in the Ukraine conflict, US and Polish officials have been considering a variety of options. But the handover of Poland's 28 Soviet-made MiG-29s would be unlikely to be a game-changer militarily. A senior US defence official has said Ukrainians are flying relatively few of their existing aircraft, for relatively little time, as it is. Poland publicly floated the plan to donate its MiGs the day before Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to depart for Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. White House officials were blindsided by the Polish announcement on the MiGs. The proposal did not come up during talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he was recently in Poland, according to a US official familiar with the talks. The proposed gift of more warplanes would be a morale booster for Ukrainians under pounding Russian assault for nearly two weeks.

Poland's MiG-29 fighter jets unlikely to be used in Ukraine due to Nato alliance (unknown)

The US has rejected Poland's offer of the Mig-29s claiming it would not be 'tenable' to fly them from Nato territory into a war zone.

It was developed in the 1970s to counter US fighter jets and first entered service with the Soviet Air Force in the early 1980s. They became among the first Soviet-developed military aircraft to use computer-controlled avionics, levelling the playing field with fighter planes developed in the West. Nato member Poland offered to transfer its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a US air base Ramstein in Germany as a way to replenish Ukraine’s air force.