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From: bxr307@csc.anu.oz.au
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: East German aircraft. Now NATO?
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.010840.10972@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 16 Oct 90 01:08:40 GMT
References: <1990Oct10.000459.46@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct11.051011.29673@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct15.033810.12838@cbnews.att.com>
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From: bxr307@csc.anu.oz.au
In article <1990Oct15.033810.12838@cbnews.att.com>, bxr307@csc.anu.oz.au writes: 
|> 	At last report (that I had heard) the MiG-29's had been returned to
|> the Soviet Union.  

	I apologise.  It now appears at the latest report I have (6 Oct'1990
issue of Jane's Defence Weekly, remember I am in Oz after all!) that the West 
Germans have decided to retain the MiG-29's.   Apparently 24 aircraft are to
be retained in two squadrons in what was East Germany for defensive purposes.
	Originally the MiG-29's were to be considered too expensive to retain
from the viewpoint of spares and maintenance.  However the Germans have
obviously decided it would be better to retain the aircraft and train pilots to
use them rather than pay the Soviet's to take them back.  
	The article made no mention of the other various pieces of Soviet 
equipment, however I would presume that a similar deal might be cut between 
the West Germans (Oops!  Sorry now.... Germans! ;-) and the Soviets. Even so 
if there isn't a deal on the other sensitive items I think the Germans have 
still given NATO a windfall in human intelligence terms with the amount of 
information will have been left behind.  However it will be of less importance
 than it would have been in the past.




Brian Ross