Pavel Novak

It was far from close deal. Remember russian proposal for numbers of Ukraine army personel and equipment, neutrality status, russian "peacekeepers" to watch on that neutrality status...

Price was definitely the reason for not buying more of MiG-23. But in service eventually it was found that MiG-23BN isn't really that great. This was universal in NSWP countries - all who used MiG-23BN opted for Su-22M4 instead of MiG-27 in second half of 1980s - or even already in 1984 in czechoslovak case. MiG-23MF/ML were very demanding on pilots so with few of them in the air force it worked quite fine as top pilots used them.

I was looking little bit more to 8th Fighter Aviation Regiment and it doesn't had enough MiG-21PFM for whole squadron in 1988/89 so its first squadron was mix of MiG-21PFM and MiG-21PF. When it received MiG-21MF in 1989 for first squadron the second squadron became this mix of MiG-21PFM and MiG-21PF. And these "PF"still operated in first half of 1990 but by mid of year ended their career.

Thanks for this text. I think that "nationalization" of soviet local administratives in 1980s is understudied and quite interesting in how it happened and what results it brought. In regards to Ukraine I would much more prefer for Russia to create proper state of law on its territory but that would need leadership that actually wants that and not just keeping same way of doing things which led to such horrors and even trying to export it currently to Ukraine. What is the point in trying to enlarge Russia when you still have such territories like Chechnya with its current administration?

Yes. 30th Fighter bomber aviation regiment had MiG-15bisSB till 1983.

CSLA purchased in total 466 MiG-21: 169 MiG-21F-13 and MiG-21FR - including replacement for the ones lended to Syria but not returned - MiG-21FR is military designation for late series which had additional wiring for carrying domestic underwing recce pods 39 MiG-21PF 50 MiG-21PFM 25 MiG-21R 24 MiG-21M 102 MiG-21MF 11 MiG-21U 13 MiG-21US 33 MiG-21UM Also production of MiG-21FR ended only in 1972 so these ones were newer than all MiG-21PF and PFM and because they had gun one could argue that in some roles they were better than PF and PFM. Number of aircrafts in squadron fluctuated a lot but it can be said that MiG-21 regiments had on average 40 fighters in three squadrons plus flight of twoseaters for training and another flight of L-29 or L-39 and one or two liaison helicopters. In case of state air defence regiments in 1980s they got L-39ZA which were used for interception of slow and low flying aircrafts and helicopters. Some L-29 were used in this role too and for some time also MiG-15 in 1970s. There was also 1st training aviation regiment in Prerov which had two squadrons with MiG-21 with about 40 of them. A lot of them were twoseaters but there were MiG-21F-13/FR in service up to 1991. New aircrafts were bought with aim to have 12 aircraft in squadron and thus 36 in regiment plus training ones. However only with Su-25K this was achieved in 1980s (it was quite cheap in comparison to others). There weren't enough money for MiG-23 numbers and the air force wasn't really happy with them anyway. I doubt that they would want to buy east german ones. Esspecially as Su-22M4 was fighter bomber which finally sort of coresponded to what air force wanted from it. Its predecessors Su-7BM/BKL and MiG-23BN were seen here as failure. I can further say that originally it was planned that Su-7BKL would serve longer in waiting for proper replacement and this was probably valid also for MiG-21 variants. But in 1988 were accepted first reduction plan which in case of air force ment that 4th Fighter aviation regiment disbandment in 1989. But in 1989 new plan was accepted which reflected CFE negotiation and which called for uniting state air defence command and aviation command and reduction of 10th Aviation army to just Aviation Corps.

Russian official stance is that only soviet republics had right to declare independence. All smaller political units do not have this right. At least this was Russian position in 1990s regarding Chechnya.

On paper 12 aircraft were in squadron but at some point and esspecially for MiG-21 and Su-7 it was aimed at 16 aircraft in squadron but not in whole regiment. For example 6th FBR got originally 44 MiG-21MF (16+16+12) but later there were less aircrafts as some were trasnferred to other units. The issue is that aircrafts rotated through general maintenance and sometimes they were after repair sent to different unit. Also apart of MiG-23MF there weren't enough MiG-23ML and MiG-23BN bought to fully equip existing squadrons so two MiG-23ML squadrons had in total 17 aircraft and three MiG-23BN squadrons had in total 32 aircrafts (later less due to crashes). In 1983 there should be 41 fighters in 8th FAR but there was aircraft exchange in mid 1980s. Unfortunatelly I don't have exact numbers what exactly was available. There are some squadron reports but not for whole period.

For better view 1988 situation: State Air Defence Command - 3rd State Air Defence Division -- 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment (Plana) - 2x squadron MiG-23ML, 1x squadron MiG-21MF // in 1989 rearmed third squadron to MiG-23MF -- 11th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Zatec) - 1x squadron MiG-23MF, 2x squadron MiG-21PFM // in 1989 rearmed first squadron to MiG-29 - 2nd State Air Defence Division -- 8th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Brno) - 1x squadron MiG-21PFM, 1x squadron MiG-21PF, 1x squadron mix of MiG-21PF and MiG-21F-13 // in 1989 rearmed first squadron to MiG-21MF, rearmed second squadron to MiG-21PFM, disbanded third squadron without replacement Aviation Command - 10th Aviation Army -- 1st Fighter Aviation Division --- 4th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Pardubice) - 2x squadron MiG-21MF/"MA", 1x squadron MiG-21F-13/FR // in 1989 regiment disbanded --- 5th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Dobrany) - 2x squadron MiG-21MF/"MA", 1x squadron MiG-21F-13/FR // in 1989 rearmed third squadron to MiG-21MF/"MA" --- 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Bechyne) - 1x squadron MiG-21MF, 1x squadron MiG-21PF, 1x squadron MiG-21F-13/FR // during 1988 rearmed second squadron to MiG-21MF and third squadron to MiG-21PF // in 1989 rearmed third squadron to MiG-21MF/"MA" -- 34th Fighter Bomber Aviation Division --- 6th Fighter Bomber Aviation Regiment (Prerov) - 3x squadron MiG-21MF // during 1988 rearmed first squadron to Su-22M4 --- 20th Fighter Bomber Aviation Regiment (Namest nad Oslavou) - 1x squadron Su-22M4, 2x squadron Su-7BKL // in 1989 rearmed second squadron to Su-22M4 and disbanded third squadron without replacement --- 28th Fighter Bomber Aviation Regiment (Caslav) - 3x squadron MiG-23BN --- 30th Assault Aviation Regiment (Pardubice) - 3x squadron Su-25K -- 47th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment (Hradec Kralove) - 1x squadron Su-22M4(R), 2x squadron MiG-21R, 2x squadron L-29R // not sure here but may be MiG-21R squadrons and L-29R squadrons were merged

Web valka.cz has lists of individual aircrafts and information when they served in time but it is not complete and sometimes there are errors. I have made lists for some variants in which I was interested. Su-22M4 50 delivered + 8 trainers Su-22UM3K 8 delivered in 1984-85 went to 47th Reconnaissance aviation regiment in Pardubice (these were in recon configuration) 12 delivered in 1987 went to 20th Fighter bomber aviation regiment in Namest nad Oslavou 12 delivered in 1988 went to 6th Fighter bomber aviation regiment in Prerov 18 delivered in 1989/90 went to 20th Fighter bomber aviation regiment in Namest nad Oslavou (one crashed in 1989) The czech ones were mostly sold to Vietnam in 2000s. Some Slovak ended in Angola. MiG-21PF 39 delivered in 1964-65 I think there were still 31 of them in 1989 and they were deployed in two squadrons in 8th Fighter aviation regiment in Brno (whole second squadron and half of third one which had also MiG-21F-13). Another squadron was in 9th Fighter aviation regiment in Bechyne (third squadron). But before the end of 1989 all were withdrawn from service. MiG-21PFM 50 delivered in 1966-68 I think 38 were there in 1989 in three squadrons. Two in 11th Fighter aviation regiment in Zatec (second and third) and one in 8th Fighter aviation regiment in Brno (originally first squadron after but after delivery of MiG-21MF changed to second squadron). MiG-21M (cs documentation botched its name hence one can find here its orignal name but also MiG-21M/A and finally MiG-21MA) 24 delivered in 1969-70 I think 20 were there in 1989 modernized to MF standard by this time. They were mixed with other MiG-21MF but most of them were in 4th Fighter aviation regiment in Pardubice (but this regiment was disbanded in July 1989) and 5th Fighter aviation regiment in Dobrany. Individual aircraft could have been moved to other units esspecially after the 4th Fighter disbandment. MiG-21MF 102 delivered in 1971-75 I think 93 were there in 1989. Deployment through year 1989: - 2 squadrons (second and third, first one had Su-22M4) in 6th Fighter bomber aviation regiment in Prerov - originally 1 squadron (the third one, first and second had MiG-23ML) in 1st Fighter aviation regiment in Plana but transferred to 8th Fighter aviation regiment in Brno (as 1st Fighter got MiG-23MF from 11th Fighter which got MiG-29 for its first squadron) - originally 1 squadron in 4th Fighter (but regiment had also second squadron with "MA" and aircraft were mixed as after modernization they were practically same), after disbandement moved to 5th and 9th Fighter - originally 1 squadron in 5th Fighter (but regiment had also second squadron with "MA" and aircraft were mixed as after modernization they were practically same), rearmed its third squadron with aircrafts from 4th Fighter - originally 2 squadrons in 9th Fighter aviation regiment in Bechyne and rearmed its third squadron with aircrafts from 4th Fighter MiG-21bis was not used by Czechoslovakia.

No way! I cannot believe that without clear confirmation! And if true I am totally sure it is pure accident and nothing else.

Hey its our only naval battle in history 🙂

What is more woke than telling others that it is not up to them to decide who to let in their own house?

SA-3 in Vietnam wasn't in combat as far as I know. They just started to receive it when US stopped flying there.

Occupation policies in ww2 were incomparable between areas west of Germany to areas east of Germany. I am really surprised how can anybody think about occupation and annexation in war in same levels as car technical inspection. Really I would rather expect this from ultra-pro-woke bullshit.