SU 27 for usa !! yay !
Btw its the Su-27UB they own, i saw it at the USAF Museum it was awesome
They were Ukrainian, not Belarussian, they did not have either, they were leased by an American company for OpFor training, and shipped in Ukrainian digital blue camo.
Uh, because those would have been Ukrainian Air Force Su-27UB’s, not US leased ones?
Yea, I’m going to go with the wikipedia citation saying that the US did recieve some other than the ones by the private company. JIJ0K already posted the picture of the wikipedia article, and the webpage has USA mentioned but marked out as private and is inaccessible. Plus I have been able to see the same claim about the 1995 aquisition in other places, so I feel it is believeable.
They also have a MiG-29A as well
From the Milavia article, linked in the wikipedia: “One of the most publicized sales involves two overhauled and demilitarized Su-27UB two-seaters, which were delivered to Pride Aircraft Inc of Rockford, Illinois. The aircraft were delivered in October 2008 at Rockford and subsequently upgraded with Western avionics.” They were sold a year later, and then sat on auction for over a decade until someone recently bought one or both of them. In fact, the USGOV bought one of them and it is on display at the USAF’s Museum in Dayton, OH.
USGOV says they were demilled on arrival to the states.
The only Su-27 we know outside of that is the 1995 one you are specualting over. Gordon Yefim mentions in in his Flanker books that the first of two (so one plane) was “delivered to the US inside of an AN-124 for an unknown purpose, believed to be support of military training exercises”.
Threading through sources like this, I am convinced of what likely happened. In 1995, two separate flights brought two Su-27P (PVO variant, not frontline aviation variant, i.e. earliest production Su-27) to the US from Belorussia. A follow up request was made to friendly/indifferent Eastern European countries for other Flankers including other variants. In this matter, Ukraine offered two recently overhauled Su-27UB’s. They were demilled and shipped over in An-124’s as well it seems.
I can’t speak conclusively for the Su-27P’s, but I have a feeling they were probably demilled as well.
As that is the crux of what is worth adding or not (I don’t care, everyone should get a Flanker, they’re great) to a US tree in the way of a “captured” or “opfor” Flanker, it should probably be an Su-27P with functioning fire control because no one wants to play a Rank VIII without a radar. It definitely shouldn’t be an Su-27UB imo, and if it was, it definitely shouldn’t have access to the R-77 as the UB’s manufactured in 1988 (what Blue 32 and the other US Su-27UB are) did not have the radar capability for it.
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I’m pretty sure Su27UB doesnt have any radar. Most Soviet trainers like the MiG29UB doesnt have any radar. It will be limited to IR missiles only.
MiG-29 is a lightweight fighter with limited internal volume, Su-27 is heavy fighter so there was enough space and weight limits to save the radar.
so it has same capabilities as the normal su27?
Yes, but worse flight performance.
Germany never had any flankers