Message posted by Phil Drake on January 02, 2017 at 16:39:57 PST:
Hi Brian, Glad you liked the photos. I'm really pleased that I made the effort and lady luck smiled on me. Some of the former Moldovan MiG's have been preserved at a number of places, three at Wright-Patterson, two at Nellis and one at Pima (off the top of my head). FYI you can see one of the MiG-29's preserved on the base at Nellis from the top floor of the La Quinta hotel! I'm certain this was not a Ukrainian AF Su-27 operating from Nellis for a number of reasons: 1) No national insignia, or Bort number painted on the side. Also most operational Su-27's have been repainted into a digital style came with grey noses and tail tips. Coupled with the facts that a similarly painted Su-27 has been photographed around Groom over the past few years, and the strong suspicion that at least 4 Su-27's have arrived in the US over the past 20 years, I think the case for it being US operated is compelling. Regards,
2) After the mission, the Sukhoi and the F-16 flew straight back into "the box" i.e. restricted airspace around Groom that Nellis, or anyone else, is not allowed into.
3) I was at Nellis before and after my Tikaboo visit. No Ukrainian Sukhois or support aircraft. There were many photographers around the fence all week who would have seen any such movements and uploaded them. In fact there was 100,000 people on the base the following weekend for Aviation Nation.
4) Any major Ukrainian deployment would have to cross Europe to get Stateside, and European spotters would definitely have tracked such an unusual deployment.
5) I'm not even sure the Ukrainian AF is in a position to deploy its best tactical aircraft to the USA.It's in a pseudo war with Russia on its Eastern border, and has already lost several aircraft to rebels. I don't even think Ukraine has enough serviceable tankers to make the trip to Nevada even if it wanted to.
Phil
In Reply to: Re: Groom Su-27 spotted in November posted by Brian L on January 02, 2017 at 10:28:16 PST:
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