US buys 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Russia's ally costing on average less than $20,000 each, report says - eviltoast
The US bought 81 Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan for $1.5m.
  • 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.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.todayEnglish
    27·
    7 months ago

    To say that the F-16 “got upgrades over the decades” is quite the understatement. A block 1/5/10/15 F-16 would get straight up destroyed by a Block 52 or 60. The airframes may be the same but every major system ON that airframe has seen continuous improvements over the years. Engines upgraded to improve power and reliability, control surface upgrades to improve handling and safety, avionics upgrades to improve flight controls, FoF performance, weapons targeting and on and on. As technology progressed we spent tens of billions keeping the F-16 current.

    I highly doubt that Russia or Kazakhstan made those same investments so while those MiGs and SUs are 4th Gen they wouldn’t fare well at all against “Modern” 4th Gen.

    Edit: That ignores the upgrades that COULD be put on an F-16 too. There’s at least some of them now flying around with Stealth Coatings and 3D vectoring engine nozzles!

    • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      7 months ago

      Holy shit, thrust vector nozzle on a 16? I’ve been watching them overhead daily my entire life and the Falcon is still going strong. I’ll just look at the Wikipedia…

      ”System for Autonomous Control of Simulation (SACS) will be added in order to operate X-62A as a Skyborg”

      Oh shit.