"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again."

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I don't see deniability being a hurdle. We can lend, give, or sell our planes as we see fit. If Russia has a problem with America sending planes to European countries, I'm sure they would have said something by now.

Rob was talking about backfilling the donated Soviet equipment with American replacements. There might be some retraining involved but there's certainly not any legal issues.
 
I had a USAF instructor, who when he was 18, left to join the RCAF to get into the Battle of Britain. He told of the bus stopping at the border while he and one other walked across, then reboarded the bus on the Canadian side. I think the year he went was 1940 but we heard this in 1959-60. He was disappointed that he was trained as a bomber pilot because that was who they most needed at the time. The part that made him smile was when telling of disembarking from the ship. An RAF sargeant told the bomber pilots to line up here and the fighter pilots over here. It seems the paperwork didn't make the ship. He said he and two other guys lined up as fighter pilots and the rest of the 200 lined up as bomber pilots. He told us the Battle of Britain was long over by that time, but he flew 22 Hurricane strike missions across the channel and just had received Spitfires, and on his second Spitfire mission was met when he parked and was told the CO wanted him. He then flew 25 missions, or what was a normal tour, in Wellingtons. He told us at the end of the 25, the crew could request new crew assignment and the only one of his original crew who stayed was the tail gunner who requested top gunner position. The ex-tail gunner was killed on their second mission of the new crew. He was called into the CO's office more than once being told the USAAC wanted him to transfer, but each time he requested to stay with the RCAF, although he was told he could get US pay if he transferred. Eventually, the CO told him that the US HQ was making it difficult for his British superiors, so he transferred. He commented about signing papers which restored his citizenship, as he had to renounce US citizenship to join RCAF. He got his wish to fly fighters, just not in combat. He was sent home to the US as an instructor and did get to fly P-47s.
 
All good but how are they configured? What avionics to they have? Is all the support equipment available? As mentioned earlier, Ukraine's MiG-29s were recently given a strike capability. I would suspect these MiG-29s owned by the US are configured for an air to air role. This has to be planned and integrated into their forces. Sure, this could be expedited but I still see it taking weeks if not months to accomplish.
 
Greg Boeser said:
Many Americans that fought for the UK were repatriated during the war, being transferred back into US units. Ajax Baumler, who had flown for the Republicans in Spain, had his passport revoked to prevent him from joining the AVG.
Click to expand...
Read this book a few months ago. Frank Tinker 8 kills over Spain.

 
I didn't know we had them, or at least that many of them. Yes to plausible deniability. Trans-ship these high mileage, no book value planes () to ??? Still, replace the diminished air arms of friends who seem to be out of WP fighters with a more NATO flavored variety.
I just watched an interview with Condoleezza Rice. She said (not a direct quote) that she had never seen NATO so unified nor had she ever expected it to before the invasion. Aren't there former Soviet republics now considering NATO membership that hadn't before?
 
This may shed some light on the jets intended for the Ukraine:
"Josep Borrell, a Spanish politician currently serving as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and as Vice-President of the European Commission, announced earlier today that the bloc would provide funding for Ukraine to purchase fighter jets from unspecified member states. While he did not identify what types of aircraft might be headed to Ukraine in the near future, he did indicate that they would be ones that the Ukrainian Air Force already operates, which would help get them into combat faster. This is just one part of a larger military assistance package valued at 450 million Euros, or just over $501 million at the rate of conversion at the time of writing."
(My bold).
 
Yup, and with a hand-off, all sorts diplomatic shenanigans can ensue.
"What? No sir, we're not arming any combatants."
 
The latest twist…..according to US officials, Belarus is now considering deploying its own forces to support the Russian invasion. Until now, Belarus has simply been a launching point for Russian forces. Sending its own forces adds yet another dimension in this complicated debacle.

It's possible that Belarus, having already been included in western sanctions for its role to-date, simply decided that it may as well join the party wholeheartedly.

It's also possible that Putin asked for (ordered?) deeper Belarus involvement in a bid to accelerate overwhelming Ukrainian defences.

Regardless, it's a rather unwelcome development.
 
if some body speak about transferring -29th from EU member state it may be just Poland and Bulgaria, this two countries are last possesors of the type. Polish Migs are in better technical condition - if US promised speed up F35 shipmentsN F16 assmbly line in Mielec will be commissioned faster than anticipated it seams to be logical decision.
 
Bulgaria has about 15 MiG-29s, which are soon to be replaced.

Slovakia operates MiG-29s and I beleive that Hungary and Romania may theirs stored.

Poland would be the major source, as they received quite a few from neighboring nations in addition to their own.

I don't think Serbia will be interested in selling theirs.

And that's just MiG-29s, the Ukraine also operates Su-24, Su-25 and Su-27 aircraft.
 
Agree about the aircraft coming from Poland.

As far as "speeding up F-35 shipments," that will not happen for a number of reasons - first, the pace of production has been contracted and more than likely "the customer," be it the US or a foreign buyer will make progress payments based on that negotiated production rate. Second, vendor made parts and sub-assemblies will have to be accelerated, some of these items like landing gear are long lead time items so that will definitely impact any accelerated timeline. Third consideration, someone will have to come up with a contract modification and money to LMCO to make this happen, LMCO will not make any attempt to bring in additional resources on their own. The last major consideration (there are many more) is once you get everything in place you will need the people to support production, and keep in mind that you re going to have a learning curve once you get everything in place.
 
Whow, one go to sleep and, at wake up, a bunch of things started to pick up.

As for the Condoleza Rice remarks, I fully agree. I don't know if NATO was ever so united. Even the EU looks like a solid block and even UK is playing like it's an member state yet.

That german pledge to spike the defense expending, the change in Finland and Sweden position in the joining NATO, the military help from the west to Ukrainia are all not very foresable at the beginning of the crisis.

For the lack of performance of the RF, it could leas to 21st century purgues?
 
In order to speed up things, it could be posible that those F-35A intended for the agressor squadrons instead be sent to, say, Poland so training start earlier and when the real deal arrived in place the pilots were almost combat capable?
 
Since a war is not only fought with weapons, here's an interesting news coming from the Shagai stock market. Chinese Payment Stocks Soar Amid SWIFT Curbs Against Russia

Stock tied to CIPS (China's own alternative to SWIFT) are soaring. So much, in fact that trading had to be suspended once some of them reached a +20% appreciation in one day.
'De-dollarization' of the world is the end game. Taking away the control of the financial markets from the US, UK and EU will make the 'west' irrelevant. This war is not about Ukraine.
 
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