Poland is one of the most dedicated military supporters of Ukraine. That is by choice, because Poland has an extensive history with Russia and is a neighboring country, which is interested in containing the war away from its borders. Poland is getting ready to transfer its Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, but for some of them, it needed Germany’s permission.
East German MiG-29. Image credit: Rob Schleiffert via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
And that sounds a bit strange. The Mikoyan MiG-29 was designed in the Soviet Union. Its maiden flight took place in 1974 and it entered service in 1983. It quickly spread through the Warsaw Pact member states and still is in service in many countries. Where it isn’t being used is in Germany.
Germany has a pretty strong air force, equipped with such fighters as the Eurofighter Typhoon and Panavia Tornado with 35 Lockheed Martin F-35 jets on order. Germany was never involved with the development of the Soviet MiG-29.
In fact, Germany probably doesn’t even quite care about the MiG-29s, other than viewing them as potential adversaries. So why did Poland need Germany’s permission to transfer its MiG-29 fleet to Ukraine?
Polish Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has announced on April 13th that Germany has approved the transfer of five MiG-29s to Ukraine. Poland is going to prepare fighter jets before sending them out, but the ball is rolling. Such permission was required, because those 5 MiG-29s came to Poland as former German Democratic Republic (as known as East Germany) planes.
East Germany was one of the Warsaw Pact members and so had a small fleet of MiG-29 jets. 24 of them were absorbed into the West German Air Force upon reunification. As time went on and Germany started upgrading its air force assets, these Soviet jets became surplus and 22 of them were sold to Poland in 2003 for 22 Euros (the price of €1 each).
You may notice the difference between the 2 jets – one German MiG-29 was lost in an accident and another one was preserved for public display.
MiG-29 in the Polish air force. Image credit: Gerard van der Schaaf via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
There are strict re-export laws regarding military equipment. One country can buy military assets from another country, but if it wants to resell it later it needs to get permission from the country of origin. In this case, Poland needed Germany’s permission to provide those MiG-29s to Ukraine.
That was mostly a formality though, because those laws are mostly there to maintain integrity (as in, to avoid a roundabout way of supplying arms to dangerous regimes) and to prevent unintentional technology transfer. Germany is not concerned about the technology in the MiG-29 and it is supporting Ukraine in its efforts to defend itself against the ongoing Russian invasion.
These laws are there for a reason. Just that in this case it’s just bureaucracy that needs to be dealt with before supplying jets to Ukraine.
Sources: Defence-ua.com , Wikipedia