{"id":1472579,"date":"2022-05-12T08:15:10","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472579"},"modified":"2022-05-12T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T12:15:22","slug":"could-nato-still-send-mig-29s-to-ukraine-to-fight-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/could-nato-still-send-mig-29s-to-ukraine-to-fight-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Could NATO Still Send MiG-29s To Ukraine to Fight Russia?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcould-nato-still-send-mig-29s-to-ukraine-to-fight-russia%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472579&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>What\u2019s the status of the abortive plan to transfer MiG-29 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/02\/the-eu-could-give-mig-29-fighter-jets-to-ukraine-to-fight-russia\/\">Fulcrums<\/a>\u201d from former Warsaw Pact air forces to Ukraine? Could the MiG-29 deal come back? The short answer is Yes, and it almost certainly is happening right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Has Gone Before<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first two iterations of the MiG-29 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/why-poland-loved-the-mig-29-fighter-and-wants-to-give-them-to-ukraine\/\">deal<\/a> failed for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/04\/the-real-story-behind-ukraines-new-mig-29-fighter-jets\/\">sound reasons<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/04\/did-ukraine-just-get-those-mig-29s-it-wants-to-fight-russia\/\">idea<\/a> that Ukrainian fighter pilots could simply pick up the aircraft in Germany and fly them into a warzone defied belief, which is not to say it couldn\u2019t happen; a great many things happened in the first week of the war that defied belief. But there were <a href=\"https:\/\/blubrry.com\/patterson_perspectives\/84346498\/patterson-perspectives-airpower-over-ukraine\/\">intractable problems<\/a> that <a href=\"denied:ttps:\/\/balloonstodrones.com\/2022\/03\/30\/commentary-transferring-polish-mig-29s-to-ukraine-why-is-it-easier-said-than-done\/\">weren\u2019t necessarily obvious<\/a> to onlookers.\n<\/p>\n<p>Polish and Ukrainian Fulcrums are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/03\/can-ukrainian-pilots-fly-polands-upgraded-mig-29-fighter-planes\/\">not the same<\/a>; aircraft on each side of the line have already undergone a long series of upgrades that left them quite different. Some of these electronics fell under export control restrictions as they included parts that the United States did not wish to see fall into Russian hands. Other difficulties included how the aircraft would be transferred to Ukrainian hands, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/russia-victory-propaganda-putin\/\">NATO<\/a> trying to avoid the problematic optics of laden fighter jets taking off from Germany and landing in a warzone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Can Ukraine Do with the MiGs?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>An interview of a <a href=\"https:\/\/coffeeordie.com\/ukrainian-mig-29-pilot-interview\/\">Ukrainian fighter pilot<\/a> at Coffee or Die clarified many of the tactics that the Ukrainian air force has used to remain alive and effective. Essentially, the Ukrainians have approached the war with extraordinary care and attention to force preservation while at the same time opportunistically providing ground support and other kinds of attacks to unsettle and unbalance the Russian offensive. Russians have taken Ukrainian air (and surface-to-air) capabilities seriously, often discharging weapons while still in Russian airspace. A recent strike by two <a href=\"https:\/\/eurasiantimes.com\/ukraine-launches-daring-attack-on-russia-with-its-su-27-fighters\/\">Su-27 Flankers on Russian facilities<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/snake-island-where-the-russian-navy-goes-to-die\/\">Snake Island<\/a> indicated that the Ukrainian air force is still alive and kicking.<\/p>\n<p>To the extent that Ukraine can keep its aircraft in the air, it can deter Russian strikes on western Ukraine, support Ukrainian ground forces in the field, and prevent the Russian air force from securely using Ukrainian airspace.\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>What Can Be Done?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJuice,\u201d the fighter pilot interviewed by Nolan Peterson for Coffee or Die, argued that Ukraine could use the European MiG-29s in the short term, but that in the slightly longer term it very much needed Western jets such as the F-16. This echoes the repeated impassioned requests by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/03\/ukraine-crisis-could-putin-really-make-peace-with-volodymyr-zelenskyy\/\">President Zelensky<\/a> and other Ukrainian officials for additional fighter aircraft.\n<\/p>\n<p>Central and Eastern European countries still have plenty of aircraft to be transferred to Ukraine.Slovakia has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/slovakia-mig-jets-to-ukraine-prime-minister-eduard-heger-bratislava\/\">discussed<\/a> sending its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2022\/04\/30\/world\/ukraine-russia-war-news?name=styln-russia-ukraine&#038;region=hub&#038;block=storyline_live_updates_block_recirc&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=LegacyCollection#slovakias-fighter-jets-might-soon-be-freed-up-thanks-to-a-deal-with-poland\">MiGs to Ukraine<\/a>, assuming that the air defense capability is rapidly backfilled by the rest of NATO. The US also appears to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aviacionline.com\/2022\/04\/u-s-to-send-mig-29-aircraft-to-ukraine-but-as-a-source-of-spare-parts\/\">facilitated the transfer of spares<\/a> to Ukraine, allowing mothballed parts of the existing force to return to service. The US announcement that it would supply Bulgaria with eight F-16s is perhaps an indicator that something is in the works. It is probably <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/the-war-zone\/44828\/russian-missile-strike-obliterated-hangar-at-ukrainian-mig-29-depot-satellite-image-shows\">not coincidental that Russia<\/a> attacked a MiG-29 production facility with cruise missiles, as this facility would undoubtedly help retool, refurbish, and repair MiGs acquired from NATO\n<\/p>\n<p>But as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Aviation_Intel\/status\/1510667528325849093\">Tyler Rogoway<\/a> argues, once our time horizon has shifted from a few weeks to a few months, much can become possible. Fighter and attack aircraft can be prepared for delivery, and pilots can be trained on new jets and new types of weapons. Rogoway suggests that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/the-war-zone\/45018\/just-pick-a-fighter-to-start-training-ukrainian-pilots-on-now\">NATO simply pick a fighter<\/a> to begin training Ukrainian pilots on as the foundation for a transfer program. The F-16 seems like an obvious candidate but isn\u2019t as capable as some other fighters, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/the-jas-39-gripen-is-custom-built-to-fight-russia\/\">Saab Gripen<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/why-u-s-stealth-f-22-raptors-and-f-15-are-training-in-alaska\/\">Boeing F-15 Eagle<\/a>. Whichever fighter NATO transfers will require immense operational and industrial support to keep in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandboxx.us\/blog\/why-cant-nato-give-ukraine-f-15s-or-f-16s-its-about-more-than-pilot-training\">skies for any significant period of time<\/a>, meaning that Western countries should be fully aware of what they\u2019re getting into.\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are the dangers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Russia has not reacted violently to the transfer of NATO military equipment to Ukraine thus far, although it has complained bitterly. We have an imperfect sense of Russia\u2019s escalation red lines, and it may be that Russia would regard the direct transfer of MiG-29s (to say nothing of F-15s) as representing a more direct intervention in the war than it is willing to tolerate. However, Russia\u2019s options for escalation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/05\/putins-got-nothing-but-nuclear-weapons\/\">remain limited<\/a>; involving NATO in the conventional war is simply not a winner for Russia at this point in the conflict.\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_44153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-44153\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">F-15E fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>History also must inform our analysis of these issues. It is not at all unusual for countries to supply their allies with fighter aircraft during war. The United States supplied aircraft (and pilots) to China during the Sino-Japanese War; Washington supplied pilots to Britain and France in the early days of World War II; the Soviet Union supplied fighters to both China and North Korea during the Korean War; China and the Soviet Union supplied aircraft and training to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and so forth. There are legitimate concerns about how to handle the transfer of aircraft, but given the amount of military equipment NATO has transferred to Ukraine thus far, fighter jets aren\u2019t much of an escalation. Given that the time horizon of the war now extends to months and possibly years, and given that the Ukrainians seem to be using their existing airframes productively, NATO should continue to carefully pursue the project of rearming Ukraine\u2019s air force.\n<\/p>\n<p><em>Now a 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uky.edu\/pattersonschool\/people\/faculty\/dr-robert-farley\">Robert Farley<\/a>\u00a0is a Senior Lecturer at the Patterson School at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Farley is the author of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com\/grounded-the-case-for-abolishing-the-united-states-air-force\">Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force<\/a>\u00a0(University Press of Kentucky, 2014), the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com\/the-battleship-book\">Battleship Book<\/a>\u00a0(Wildside, 2016), and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2CK23FW\">Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology<\/a> (University of Chicago, 2020).<\/em>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s the status of the abortive plan to transfer MiG-29 \u201cFulcrums\u201d from former Warsaw Pact air forces to Ukraine? Could the MiG-29 deal come back? The short answer is Yes,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}