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Lybian Pilots getting out of Dodge?


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In the case of Egypt, I understand the military is the real power, and Mubarak could only remain in charge with their blessing.

We were told the same about the Iraqi Army before Desert Storm. We were told they were the fifth largest army in the world with wwere very organized warriors.

But in reality most of these militaries are rather comical and poorly diciplined and trained. They still need to be respected but they are not as well trained as many people think.

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I think the other Arab nations (like Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon) have their own problems to worry about.

Maybe, but Egypt and Tunisia especially should be taking note since they both share a boarder with Libya. Anyway you still have the so called Big boys of Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Syria and Kuwait. It would be in there own interest to intervene.

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i think so, yes.... those decals look Ok for the two mirages... (the ecuatorian looks cool btw)

As a side note... i've been reading the al jazeera live blog and there are rumors of a libyan navy vessel also defecting... if true, that will be a huge deal!!!

Cheers

German

Edited by german
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What is likely to happen to defected machinery? Will it be kept until this situation is sorted out, and then given back to Libya? Sent to a museum? Or just scrapped?

Stuff is normally given back, but suspect in this case not untill things are sorted out.

Julien

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What is likely to happen to defected machinery? Will it be kept until this situation is sorted out, and then given back to Libya? Sent to a museum? Or just scrapped?

It depends on the relationship between involved countries. In most cases short of actual, declared war, the airplane will be returned sooner or later.

Typically, a transport plane from the defector(s)'s country will arrive with everything needed to fly the plane back home, including another crew. If there is no ground for seeking asylum or the other country gets threatening (example: Sweden and the Soviet Union at the end of WWII), then the crew will be repatriated as well, and face court martial.

Famous examples are Belenko's MiG-25 which was returned to the Russian in crates - an alibi for the fact it had obviously been dismantled to the last diode and then put hastily back together? - and the Yak-23 of a Rumanian pilot which defected to Belgrad: it was transported to the US and test-flown at length before being returned to Romania by the Yugoslavians.

Less famous are a Soviet YAk-9 pilot defecting to Switzerland (plane and pilot were returned to the Russians after the war). No Kim Sook's MiG-15, and the MiG-21 and MiG-23 that flew to Israel, were obviously retained.

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I wonder if we'll see more Libya-to-Malta flights.

I doubt it. Given the brutality displayed by the regime in the past few days, I think drastic measures have been taken. I fear for the lives of the loved ones of these two pilots......

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What is likely to happen to defected machinery? Will it be kept until this situation is sorted out, and then given back to Libya? Sent to a museum? Or just scrapped?

I'm sure that the equipment will be returned once Libya is stabilized. Libya and Malta have pretty good relations and some of the Maltese military's aircraft (Allouette IIIs) came from Libya.

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It is nice to see the refusal of the various middle east militaries to follow through with orders to attack protestors. With the individual Lybian defections I wonder how far off a full revolt of the military can be.

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There is a report that a Su-22UM3K ditched off the coast near Ajdabiya; it's crew choosing to eject after they received orders to bomb civilians in Benghazi.

Rock the Casbah, anyone?

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There were some Su-25's on SKY news tonight, they also looked like they had not flown for a few years.

There were also pics of what appeared to be F.1's attacking civilian targets.

Julien

Edited by Julien (UK)
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