The US Military Purchased 21 Russian Mach 2.3 MiG-29 Fulcrum Fighters to Stop Iran From Geetting a Nuclear Weapons Delivery System

Automatically curated summary from 19FortyFive.

In October 1997, the United States acquired 21 Soviet-built MiG-29 fighter jets and 500 air-to-air missiles from Moldova via the Nunn-Lugar program. Washington aimed to prevent Iran from acquiring the aircraft—14 of which U.S. officials claimed were nuclear-delivery capable—and to analyze the technology for military intelligence. Though Russian officials disputed the nuclear capability claim, the transaction successfully denied Iran access, with the full serial-by-serial disposition of all 21 airframes remaining officially unconfirmed.

Context and limitations

Russian officials disputed U.S. claims regarding the nuclear-delivery capability of the MiG-29Cs, and the full official disposition of all 21 airframes has never been publicly released.