CFE said:
I thought that the AF denied Gen Bond's involvement in CONSTANT PEG when the program was made public.
The Associated Press, May 7, 1984
The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
May 7, 1984, Monday, PM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 975 words
HEADLINE: Allies Help Pentagon Obtain Soviet Arms
BYLINE: By FRED S. HOFFMAN, AP Military Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
With help from its friends, the United States has quietly obtained Soviet weapons and gained vital information on their strengths and weaknesses for nearly two decades.
The government has always been reluctant to discuss such acquisitions for fear of embarrassing the friendly donors, but the spotlight was turned anew on the subject after a three-star Air Force general was killed April 26 in a Nevada plane crash that was quickly cloaked in secrecy.
Pentagon sources said Lt. Gen. Robert M. Bond, vice commander of the Air Force Systems Command, died while at the controls of a supersonic Soviet MiG-23 fighter.
Sources who spoke on condition they remain anonymous have indicated the MiG-23, the most advanced Soviet warplane ever to fall permanently into U.S. hands, was supplied to this country by Egypt.
Since turning away from the Soviet Union, its main arms supplier for 20 years, the Egyptian government has grown closer to the United States in the last decade and is modernizing its forces with American-made arms and planes. It reportedly has turned over samples of its stock of Soviet gear.
Israel also has been a major supplier of a wide range of Soviet-made air and ground weapons it captured from Arab armies in a series of wars.
And Japan helped by allowing U.S. technicians to virtually to pull apart a Soviet MiG-25 interceptor flown there by a defecting pilot in 1976.
Even after U.S. relations with Israel fell to perhaps their lowest point following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in mid-1982, intelligence information on the performance of Soviet warplanes and missiles _ and even captured weapons _ continued to flow to the United States.
In February 1983, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger told reporters,"We are getting ... a substantial flow of information and actual weapons and weapons systems that were captured by the Israelis."
Israeli forces had defeated Syrian air and ground units in and over Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and, as in previous Arab-Israeli wars, reaped a harvest of arms supplied to the Syrians by the Soviets.
Intelligence and military officials have refused to identify any weapons sent to the United States since the most recent fighting.
Defense sources said the United States has several types of Soviet warplanes, but "no great numbers." These include MiG-21s, MiG-19s and some earlier models.
While the versions of the MiGs exported by Moscow to clients and friends are less sophisticated than those in the Soviet air force, U.S. technicians said they can still learn much by studying and test-flying the models made available to them.
Among other things, the specialists said, U.S. pilots and engineers can determine the handling characteristics of these aircraft, their fuel consumption, electronics and even the technology used in their manufacture.
American pilots, for example, can learn about a Soviet pilot's ability to see enemy aircraft from his cockpit. Such information, along with other data on performance and design, can affect the way American fighters are built to deal with their potential Soviet opponents.
Some of the most dramatic instances of Israeli shipments of Soviet-made equipment to the United States occurred during the 1973 war.
The Israelis, crossing the Suez Canal, captured an SA-6 anti-aircraft missile system intact. Used for the first time in combat, it had inflicted heavy damage on Israel's U.S.-equipped air force.
Pentagon sources said at the time the captured SA-6 system was flown to the United States in a C-5 transport plane while the war was still going on. It was sent to an Air Force laboratory, dismantled and its components examined, tested and assessed within a few days.
In part because of this, U.S. sources have said, the Israelis were supplied with information on how to deal with the SA-6 and the weapon was quickly neutralized.
Technicians also found that Soviet anti-tank missiles were more accurate and lethal than anticipated and, as a result, the United States developed more resistant armor for its tanks.
The United States got enough Soviet-made tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and other arms and equipment that the Army was able to use to create special units that serve as enemy forces in troop maneuvers.
According to Pentagon sources, the U.S. Army has a variety of Soviet-built tanks at Fort Hood, Texas, and the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
Although the United States has not yet gotten its hands on some of the latest Soviet tanks, such as the T-72, its technicians have been able to examine improved engines, armor and chemical warfare equipment on tanks of older designs still in use by the Red Army.
The defection by Soviet Lt. Viktor Belenko in a MiG-25 he flew to Japan in September 1976, was regarded as a windfall by U.S. technical intelligence.
American engineers found the MiG-25's engines "very impressive." Although their initial appraisal tended to downgrade the plane's other features, a more exhaustive study led the engineers to change their minds and give the aircraft higher marks.
Sometimes the U.S. government has found itself embarrassed and forced to acknowledge the arrival of Soviet-made equipment because it was seen.
In July 1979, a Yugoslavian vessel unloaded armored personnel carriers, small arms and ammunition at the Naval Ammunition Depot in Earle, N.J.
Under pressure, the Pentagon acknowledged it was "equipment from various Warsaw Pact countries."
The disclosure led the Army to admit it had used a private firm as a channel for acquiring the gear. Asked how the unidentified company had obtained the Soviet bloc weaponry, the Pentagon said only that "foreign equipment is often purchased by private dealers for resale."
http://www.internetpirate.com/bond.htm
Only knew about the Mulhare and Stewart crashes. Had never heard of Ridenhauer's before. :-[
