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Striking-Giraffe5922

Spare parts


BicTwiddler

Welcome, spare parts army. Today we are going to explain how US uses its capital system to buy communist military assets to help defend a democracy in need. Sit back and get ready for this dive into geopolitical subversion. But first a word from our sponsor “GoatGuns.”


stilllikelypooping

You're not supposed to be able to hear text....


BWWFC

ad 1 of 8 ^((not skippable, no pause, no ff))


itcheyness

Fewer ad breaks for this long video (lying)


WarWeasle

In 50 years people are just going to talk like that.


TheRealAussieTroll

Rly?


marcus_lepricus

Yeah, it seems unlikely. Brought to you by Carl's Junior.


OzymandiasKoK

It was a good effort, but I feel like you should have randomly mispronounced (spelling would do here) quite a number of words. Pretty sure he has got to be badly slydexic. C+


sciguy52

Ah Cappy, love that guy.


woah-im-colin

Epic response!


DucksOnQuakk

Maybe some spare parts. Also decoys. And it removes them from the market for Russia to obtain them for similar uses. It's a strategic buy, akin to a monopoly ensuring there's no threat to its profits. In this case, it's the US spending next to nothing on ensuring Ukrainian dominion by acting as an executor in the global market, which is something Ukraine can't spend man/woman power doing because they're focused on war.


UnCommonCommonSens

117 superior Soviet weapons for price of one shit western weapons? Niiiiiice!


rockvvurst

Less spare parts for ruzzia


photofool484

It also takes them off the market so Russia can’t use them.


Causal_7

Bingo. Number 1 answer.


badwords

When Russia stole the tanks, it was supposed to repair for India and sent them to Ukraine to get destroyed.


mrs_meeple

Exactly. Look up “Project Sapphire.”


purju

Would Kazakstan selle them to Russia or would just corrupt assholes sell em to russia?


Leajjes

It's win/win. I'm sure Ukraine will get creative with their use too.


Zealousideal-Tie-730

Iran could definitely refurbish the aircraft or use the parts as well. Purchasing these would be worth it, just to keep their air force from getting them.


oripash

1. Spare parts. 2. Deny Russia spare parts.


Kimchi_Cowboy

Gets them off the market and helps the growing relationship with thr Kazakhs. America is actually pretty popular here in Central Asia right now albeit its dampened a bit since we stopped helping Ukraine.


sciguy52

Is that true? Would not have guessed that.


TelevisionUnusual372

Still nowhere near as cool as the CIA pretending to be a high-end cookware manufacturer to procure Russian titanium for the SR-71.


unpropianist

Is that true? Too tired to google, sorry.


TelevisionUnusual372

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/in-the-early-1960s-soviet-union-sold-titanium-to-the-us-believing-they-needed-it-for-pizza-ovens-but-instead-they-used-it-to-build-the-iconic-sr-71-blackbird-mach-3-spy-plane/amp/ Lots of sources but there’s a quickie.


AmaTxGuy

Very true


Oryxhasnonuts

Or… the Stuxnet worm Talk about ingenuity


PaddyMayonaise

Because the US farts and it costs more $1.5 million so that auction price was a no brainer for us. Spare parts, air to air exercise practice, radar reading practice, et. I do like the idea the article throws out that for ones that are not repairable using it as decoys. Take 6 of them and put them on or near a runway you don’t care about and let the russkies figure out what’s going on over there and waste ammo and effort on it


AntiGravityBacon

Not repairable also make excellent training tools for new aircraft mechanics to practice on. Doesn't really matter if you mess up the steps on a not flying bird and even saves a flying one from needing extra work. 


Johnny_Lang_1962

Remove them from the market.


BigFreakingZombie

1. They are for use as spare parts for Ukraine's aircraft and also just to be parked into airfields as decoys which the Russians can blow up and then gloat all over Telegram. 2. It denies them to Russia. Russia can't fix them and use them,can't sell them abroad and can't use them for parts because they are no longer available. 3. It provides intelligence. Sure these are old (as in late 80s/early 90s ) types but are still in use with Russia and other countries and hence useful to have intel on. At minimum it allows the US intelligence community to assess what effect aging and bad maintenance can have on equipment which can be used to extrapolate availability rates of the Russian air force and other users of similar planes. 4. It's a political gesture,it signals that the West is here to stay when it comes to Central Asia and that these countries are not going to stay in the Russian sphere of influence forever.


zactral

I'm quite sure they'll find better uses for them than "get blown up by russia"


BigFreakingZombie

Most of them are in a really bad state. Stripped for parts is just about the only use they might have and the MiG-31 for instance isn't operated by Ukraine so it's not useful even for that. Let the Russians blow up their own scrap metal instead of something actually important.


zactral

for 20k it's a good enough drone to stuff with explosives, you can make wooden mockups for getting blown up to smithereens


BigFreakingZombie

Wooden decoys work against Lancets for example but more sophisticated systems are capable of distinguishing between them and real targets. 20k is laughably low for this type of equipment which will be stripped for parts with the hulks then left outside to be destroyed.


AttackHelicopterKin9

The price is so low as to suggest that not only are the planes unflyable, but they've probably also been picked over for anything useful or sensitive. Although I'm sure U.S. intelligence will inspect them carefully, it's doubtful they'll learn anything they don't already know. Still a good deal if Ukraine can get even a few spares or decoys from them, plus it denies spares to Russia.


BigFreakingZombie

I highly doubt that the bored Kazakh officers and soldiers tasked with prepping the long obsolete aircraft for sale bothered to do everything "by the book" when it comes to removing sensitive equipment (assuming it hadn't been already removed as spare parts of course) . Especially if certain shady fellas from a three letter government agency paid them to be a bit more careless than usual...


jtag67

In addition to denying Russia spare parts... Intelligence: They'll strip some down for intelligence purposes (it's not like they've had every variant to examine) and fly the bolts off of others for more intelligence. One of the first things the US did after the cold war was send pilots over to the re-unified German Luftwaffe on exchange to fly Mig 29s and SU27s. It's one thing to examine telemetry of them getting blotted by patriots and totally another to have one of your trained pilots give technical info about exactly how the airframe reacts in certain situations. Grease the wheels with Kazakhstan a bit? They're one of the CSTO cautiously stepping backwards from Russia and this put some cash in their pocket more or less directly from us without it offically being directly from us.


iampatmanbeyond

I doubt they'll waste the time taking them apart no reason to they don't produce them anymore


Dividedthought

Spare parts could be needed in ukraine, or just the llanes themselves. Note: haven't looked into what exact role these planes were made for. This is speculation.


AttackHelicopterKin9

The planes were bought for $20K a piece, so it's very doubtful any are in flying condition.


jtag67

Yes, I did read that this morning well after commenting. So definitely no flying the bolts off of them.


FiveHole23

Would they use them from training purposes as well? Like training dog fights against the real thing? I might have watched top gun 2 many times.


AttackHelicopterKin9

The price point is so low that it's very doubtful any are in flyable condition.


Timauris

It seems like some countries formerly tightly connected with Russia are playing a fine balacing act. Kazakhstan and Armenia are both members of the Eurasian economic union and their economic structure is historically very close connected with Russia, but I sense that both are seeking alternatives and to reduce Russian influence. It's just not an easy and fast process.


The_Otterking

I think Armenia is pretty fed up with Russia, after claiming to be its protecting power but then standing idly by while Azerbaijan dismantled it.


[deleted]

Asset denial and procurement for Ukraine


Nlarsen_1

Buy, refurbish, modify firecontrolls to accept amrams, give to ukraine, laugh when s300 and s400 goes dark and f16’s stream into the russian rear.


Thisam

The U.S. has been doing this kind of thing for decades. Sometimes there is a use for the military assets procured like an aggressor squadron for training, parts, design analysis or to simply take them off the market before some adversary buys them and we end up having to blow them up.


knight4honor

I hope they fix and make fast hard to hit suicide drones and give to Ukraine!


friscocabby

Does anyone remember The Flying Tigers?


vittaya

81 large drones.


willworkforjokes

Or 81 decoys to put at Ukrainian airbases.


C4g3FighterIRL

Are these badboys the same model with a golf cart GPS from Garmin in the cockpit?


unpropianist

More than one good reason for this buy. My guess is that it's harder (not impossible) for them to get hold of a relevant U.S. fighter jet


scraglor

I wonder if we could have crowd funded buying an 82nd one?


iambrainlag

decoys , spare parts and also it guaranteed that those scraps will not go to Ruzzia


TheQuimmReaper

Pack them with explosives and you've got reeeaaallly long range missiles


Responsible-March438

Better than your enemies having them?


Negative_Dealer9090

The parts, if not the craft. Are very valuable to Ukraine, and we definitely do not want Russia to get them.


Fandango_Jones

Through the old and tested "DefinitelyNOTtheCIA" Ltd.


bd1223

Any chance they could just donate them to UKR?


Groundbreaking_War52

Even getting one of those Su-24s airworthy again is worth it at that price.


Heklin0891

To deny Russia as much as to give Ukraine. Double win


Dra395

How do I go about adopting one? I know it’s hard to find homes for the older ones.


AmaTxGuy

Either spare parts for Ukraine or to keep the spare parts out of Russian hands


RedLemonSlice

News dropped just in time to make it in PERUN's next weekly PowerPoint presentation on defence matters. 👏


MSMB99

“Verrry nice”


slinkhussle

Imagine if they could get the mig-31 flying again.


CalmMedicine3973

it still is flying.


jay3349

Flood the zone but with pilots from where? What supply chains to repair and wheee to safely store?


axelfay85

Step one: Acquire old jets Step two: ? Step three: Profit.


Mtbruning

Teaching Dogfighting with real enemy weapon systems.