HISTORY

Raid and fuel released from the Russian Su-27 fighter onto an American MQ-9 Reaper drone on March 14.

No retaliation this time.

Until the impact Reaper maintained the stable

course. First it could be seen that the Russian

fighter rushed in from behind and below, flew

closely above the drone and released the fuel

at the same time. Drone however maintained

its altitude and heading. Next the Russian

fighter performed an attack while releasing

the fuel. This time the pilot miscalculated. He

started to disengage too late, and Su-27 closed

in too much and hit the drone. At the moment

of impact, the communication was lost briefly.

Once re-established one of the propeller blades

was deformed and cut off. That was the reason

Reaper could not sustain the flight and the

operators guided it into the sea. Despite the fact

that the close approaches were intended, the

USA qualified the collision as an accident and

were not interested in the conflict escalation.

Even though the Russians lied that there had not

been any collision, the fighter pilot was awarded

for destroying the American drone, despite the

fact that due to his inability and idiotic behavior

he jeopardized himself and his aircraft in the

first place.

Only after this incident the details of other

previous encounters between western and

Russian aircraft appeared, which only by

sheer luck did not result in a disaster. On

September 29, 2022, very dangerous situation

took place when two armed Su-27 fighters for

approximately 90 minutes shadowed the British

RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft

in the international airspace above the Black

Sea. One of the fighters released the air-to-air

missile which luckily missed the British plane.

Consequently, the western aircraft started

to fly escorted missions. Despite this fact, on

December 30, 2022, another Rivet Joint escorted

by two Typhoons fighters was closely shadowed

by the Russian fighters which closed in to barely

30 meters.

Important reinforcements

Despite all those incidents the Allied

reconnaissance flights above the Black Sea

(Baltic Sea as well) continue. The military

supplies continue as well and during this

reporting period culminated by employment of

the modern Leopard 2 and Challenger 2 MBTs

together with trained crews to Ukraine and

also with public offer to provide the supersonic

fighters. Already in April 2022, the Ukrainians

received 21 Mig-29s. However, these were nonairworthy aircraft which had been acquired by

the USA in Moldova and were offered for the

spare parts at the beginning of the invasion. That

helped to repair several grounded Ukrainian

AF fighters. The Ukrainians also received 14

June 2023

Su-25 fighter-bombers from Bulgaria but this

delivery was provided by the third party and not

publicized at that time.

Both Poland and Slovakia spoke about possible

Mig-29 fighter deliveries to Ukraine during

the first days of the Russian invasion in 2022.

At that time, this matter sadly ended in the

political chaos and effort to avoid the direct

supply. The discussion was seriously revisited

only this year. Poland and Slovak Republic

coordinated their actions this time. On March 16,

Poland was the first to announce four airworthy

Mig-29 delivery to Ukraine with more to follow.

Slovakia joined the suite the following day.

Polish Migs

During 1989-1990, Polish AF bought 12 Mig-29s

from the Soviet Union. There were nine singleseaters (9.12 version) and three two-seaters.

Consequently, in 1995 10 aircraft were sourced

The damage of the drone’s propeller blade is clearly

visible.

from the Czech Republic (9 single-seaters and

one two-seater) as a barter for 11 PZL W-3 Sokol

helicopters. In 2002 Poland bought 22 aircraft

from Germany for a symbolic price one euro per

aircraft. There were airplanes originally flown

by East Germany AF. Four of them were twoseaters, rest of them single seaters. Due to the

fact that these airplanes had served for quite

some time, only 14 of them, those in the best

condition, were assigned to the regular duty. In

the beginning of the year, Polish AF had 28–29

Mig-29s on the strength. They decided to donate

14 of them to Ukraine. Four fighters flew over

to Ukraine in March, four of them were in the

process of transfer during March and April and

another six were being prepared for the transfer

in the coming weeks. Poland announced that

the remaining Migs would be delivered as well

if necessary. It was clarified later that these

remaining aircraft were in fact of German origin.

Anti-aircraft tank Gepard in the Ukrainian service. Except of the small number 52 painted on the armor the only

other markings are the kills marked on the right side of the turret – three Shahed-136 drones and two cruise

missiles.

INFO Eduard

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