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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

A REGIMENT UNDER THE KNIFE By demolishing its super-aircraft Ukraine loses combat power and experts lose their jobs

13 November, 2012 - 00:00
Photo by the author: THESE PLANES WILL END THEIR LIFETIME IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. WHO NEEDS THIS?

After numerous arguments and discussions about the future of the unique Tu-95MC and Tu-160 strategic missile carrying complexes and consultations with the US Secretary of Defense Minister, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council has sentenced them to death. Now the time has come for the verdict to be carried out. The presentation of the liquidation procedure with the participation of the Ukrainian Defense Minister and his American opposite number will take place in the immediate future. The United States is providing financing for destruction of these unique strategic bombers with no counterpart anywhere.

The power has been cut off for nonpayment in the Pryluky air base, where the heavy bombers regiment, headed by National Guard Col. Serhiy Osypov, is deployed. And they reduce the supply limit every day. Fortunately the command can distribute the supplied energy as they see fit.

“With the debt totaling over Hr 380,000 we have to cut off the residential zone, where there are kindergarten, school, service areas,” says the colonel. “The canteen, equipped with electric ovens, is switched on only for the time needed to cook the food. The regiment dines by candlelight, as they say. The gas supply may also be cut off in the immediate future.

The regiment has many debts. A local monopolist, the bread combine, sets its conditions to the indebted pilots, and sometimes instead of bread they eat unleavened rolls, baked in the regiment’s bakery. No one believes the military’s promises, and any commander can confirm that they have been duped three times.

The regimental commander says that telegrams about power cutoffs have been sent to various addresses, but so far nothing has been done. What kind of combat readiness can we speak about if the air base is blacked out?

The discussion over opening up the military settlement has became sharper of late. Today it is open only to authorized personnel, which precludes dwellers from privatizing their residences. The commander is not against opening the town, but he is sure that conditions for the officers will undergo no significant change. The city council agrees to take it on balance, but only if all utility communications will be modernized to meet reasonable standards. The Defense Ministry is unlikely to provide financing for modernization.

Not one square meter of residential area has been built since 1992. The program implemented stipulates construction of residential housing for servicemen participating in the liquidation of what used to be combat machines. It is planned to build 650 apartments in 1999-2002. For this purpose the state budget will provide $13,770,000 at May 1, 1998 prices. Theoretically, these are four apartment buildings. But considering the residential housing needed in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Poltava, Pryluky can hardly count on this.

19 Tu-160 missile carriers will not live to the end of their designed life-span and die under the American knife. The program stipulates liquidation and dismantling the heavy bombers and wing missiles, their storage, maintenance, the shipping of removed equipment, and scrap processing.

Not only the Tu-160s will die in Pryluky, but also their wing missiles, which carried nuclear warheads before Ukraine announced itself a nuclear-free state. It will take five minutes to liquidate one missile and at least 456 missiles are sentenced to death. But the bombers have tons and miles of cables along with many unique devices with much precious metal in them.

“After removing the equipment, the planes will be cut into pieces, packaged, and shipped for further processing,” says Col. Osypov. Hughes Aircraft Systems International, which has been working in Ukraine for three years, became the integrating contractor on a tender basis. The company has been destroying intercontinental strategic missiles.

The top officers of the regiment have found job offers for virtually all regimental personnel.

The officers, who put their hearts in these wonderful planes, believe that by failing to set the right priorities and eschewing modern weapons, the country is putting itself in the position of an underdeveloped beggar nation. And if we failed to find funds to keep the hi-tech arms, in the immediate future we are unlikely to need any other kinds.

INCIDENTALLY:


At the regular Parliament session on September 2, Communist faction leader Petro Symonenko accused the Defense Ministry of “disintegration of the strategic missile carriers Tu-160, built in 1980-1991, which have no analogy in the world.” The very next day, the Defense Ministry press-office denied the accusation, noting that “these planes are not being dismantled today.” But the use of Tu-160 and Tu-95mc heavy bombers is not stipulated either, because they were specifically designed to deliver wing missiles with nuclear warheads. Moreover, the press office noted, to solve the question of handing over the planes to the Russian Air Force 20 work meetings have been conducted since September 1993. The parties developed a draft agreement, but in July 1997 Russian Federation government refused to take the planes.

 

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