Word: 21s
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...Government leaked word, based on sketchy and unconfirmed spy-satellite information, that crated Soviet MiG-21 interceptors were about to be unloaded at Nicaragua's Pacific port of Corinto from the Soviet freighter Bakuriani. The U.S. has long warned Nicaragua that the arrival of MiG-21s or similar fighters would be "unacceptable," since such weapons would upset the regional balance of air power...
...time the Bakuriani unloaded its crated cargo and returned to sea, Washington was persuaded that MiG-21s had not been delivered. One reason, indicated by Shultz, was a Soviet assurance to the contrary. Another was the information gleaned from the rash of U.S. spy-plane flights, more probably low-flying F-4 reconnaissance jets than the superfast, supersophisticated SR-71s claimed by the Sandinistas (no sonic boom from an SR-71 can be heard when the aircraft flies, as it can on spy missions, at an altitude of 15 miles or more...
That possibility drew attention to a little-known aspect of American military training. The U.S. has managed to assemble a minisquadron of between four and 15 Floggers, as well as at least a dozen of the more easily obtainable MiG-21s. All of the MiG-23s, which the Soviets began producing in 1973, were purchased from Egypt. Cairo had acquired an extensive Soviet-built arsenal, including the Floggers, from 1955 to 1974, when Egypt was one of Moscow's most valued client-states...
...advantages of training Air Force pilots with real Soviet hardware have not been lost on the Navy. It is studying a proposal made last year by a subsidiary of Dallas' LTV Corp, to supply 24 MiG-21s for use by Navy pilots. About 5,000 MiG-21s have been built since their introduction in 1956, including some in countries other than the Soviet Union. The LTV subsidiary did not reveal its source of supply, but MiG-21s are starting to show up on the world used-arms market...
NATO arms-control experts downplayed the Soviet threat to station new missiles in Eastern Europe: some Soviet missiles and warheads were already in the East bloc satellites, and their replacement by a new generation of shorterrange, mobile SS-21s, SS-22s and SS-23s has been expected for some time...