This sounds wildly implausible, or at least very exaggerated.
Iโve worked on jets. If you put them in pieces, you are talking months (at least 3-6), to put them back together. Modern jets arenโt Legos. They are very complex machines that require testing and fine tuning.
Most flight surface controls and engines parts have flight hour limits that are painstakingly logged so preventative maintenance maximizes service lifetime. When we transferred jets, we also delivered their maintenance history.
When we mothball aircraft, we only remove certain components and basically seal it up. To take it out of mothball and reassemble it, under normal circumstances, you are talking 8 months.
Maybe they surreptitiously transferred aircraft to Ukraine, I can believe that. But if they broke them down into individual parts and said, โHere you go!โ, the proper response would be, โGo fuck yourself.โ
I imagine this story started out one way and has just been embellished each telling.
Maybe they just rolled the jets there, took the hubcaps of the fuel inlet off of every one of them (so that they are โdisassembledโ) and then let ukraine know.
So still technically correct and within international arms trade law, but the jets got through without needing too much reassembly.
Maybe put some clingwrap or something over the inlet so moisture doesnโt get in.
These are russian jets, the ak-47s of jets. You can take one out of the mud and it will still fire.
And where did you get those unmarked crates of R-27โs?
They fell off a truck. Now stop asking questions.
This reminds me of the beginning of lend lease. Where the us and Canada built a few air strips in the middle of nowhere that just happened to straddle the border.
- American factory pilot would fly brand new fighter plane and land carefully on the neutral American side of the runway and drive away.
- Somehow, the now abandoned salvage property would get towed to the other side
- British pilot in Dominion of Canada gets in and flies to United Kingdom.
Whyd they even need the USโ blessing? Normally the country that manufactured the arms has a veto but in this case that was Russia. So who cares?
Of course Russia would have vetoed these jets being used against them so it sounds like this 'rule โ doesnโt always apply either.
But well done to the polish. Of course they know what itโs like to be first on the chopping block, sadly.
Same reason even major powers like Germany coordinate with the US when it comes to giving Ukraine weapons: the US is the only country in the world at the moment that is completely invincible, so having it share the responsibility is a good idea
Defending and attacking are two different things. I meant the US cannot be defeated by an attacker.
Iโm imagining like they removed one screw from the plane and then called it disassembled and parked it there.