Saddam’s Military Planes Found in Serbia

Iraq’s missing Air Force jets have been traced to Serbia, where they are mostly in pieces. They have been cannibalized, parted out, or left to deteriorate over he past twenty years.

Iraqi officials said they found the planes in the process of trying to trace what Saddam, the former dictator, did with the country's military assets. The 19 planes, all Soviet-built, were sent in 1989 to a Yugoslav maintenance plant in Zagreb, in what is now Croatia, but never got the overhauls they needed.

In 1991, when the Croatian war for independence broke out, the jets were transported to Serbia in parts. And there they remained.

A delegation from Iraq will go to Belgrade to negotiate the return of the jets, but they are unlikely to help Iraq rebuild its air defenses. The Iraqi Air Force currently has no jets. Link -via Fark

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I also think that scrap planes are fairly useless since there are only 19 planes anyways.

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Well now they basically get back a load of scrap that -if they can find some more of that scrap - perhaps can be combined and put together to the point that it resembles one or even a few old fighterplanes.

What does that give them?
Practise in putting scrap together effectively. Nothing more.

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The planes were probably only originaly geared to drop rocks.

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They where not sent to Serbia, but at that time Yugoslavia at the overhaul facility in Zagreb(now Croatia). Yugoslavia was socialist, but US allied country and never part of "eastern Block" and Warsaw Pact. During that time, USA supported Iraq in war against Iran. Yugoslavia was perfect political choice to fix plains. USA also hired Yugo construction companies to build airports and military installations, even Including the Saddam's bunker. They where never delivered back because of the Gulf war 1 and sanctions. Iraq had Russian, but as well a lot of USA, French and British equipment. It was absurd than Iran had USA Phantom jets!