Military Pilot Defections and Equipment Thefts

[flasheart]

During the Cold War there were many examples of Soviet and Warsaw Pact pilot's taking their aircraft and defecting to the west.
Examples include Victor Belenko who detected to Japan in a cutting edge Mig 25 in 1976 and Aleksander Mikhailovich who detected to Turkey in his Mig 29 in 1989.

Both of these men and many others defected for their own reasons however there are other examples of pilots being persuaded to defect with their aircraft by Western intelligence agencies such as Mossad's Operation Diamond in which an Iraqi pilot was convinced to fly his Mig 21 fighter to Israel.

Outside of pilots defecting with aircraft there are plenty of examples of western nations covertly acquiring Warsaw Pact hardware such as the US obtaining a Libyan MI 24 attack Helicopter after the Libyans left it abandoned in the desert in 1988.
Even more recently it is claimed that a Russian made Panstir SAM system was covertly acquired by and transported to the US from Libya. During the attempts to rescue the survivors of the striken submarine Kursk the Russians seemed genuinely afraid that western rescue diver's were actually more interested in examining and removing classified information and technology from the wreak.

My question is were have there ever been any examples of western personnel or aircraft defecting to the east or of Russia/China/USSR successfully covertly acquiring and evaluating western hardware and if so what were they able to learn?
For example there was an incident during the Gulf War where a Saudi pilots took his F15 and defected to Sudan.

 

[CV12Hornet]

There are far fewer examples of Western pilots defecting to the Communist bloc than vice-versa, and none of them involved top-of-the-line gear. There were some defections from Iran to Iraq in the 1980s, but Iraq sensibly sent the aircraft back to the US via Saudi Arabia.

I was able to dig up a story of an Iranian officer defecting to the USSR with a brand-new M60 tank, which greatly affected development of both the T-62 and T-64.

Soviet acquisition and evaluation of Western kit tended to come from captured examples rather than defections. Probably the most famous example is the Soviet Union acquiring and reverse-engineering Sidewinder missiles after Chinese fighters came home from a clash with the ROCAF with some dud weapons stuck in them. And the Vietnamese passed on a number of ex-South Vietnamese F-5s to the Soviet Union for evaluation; Vietnam in general seems to have been a major source for Soviet intel, with J79 technology allegedly aiding in development of the AL-21 turbojet.

 

[ric350]

Probably the most famous example is the Soviet Union acquiring and reverse-engineering Sidewinder missiles after Chinese fighters came home from a clash with the ROCAF with some dud weapons stuck in them.

I’ve always thought this incident sounded fishy, and there is a theory that it was a cover story to protect Stig Wennerström. If you think about it, you have a 3 meter long, 200 pound aluminum tube with a glass seeker head, carrying a 20 pound warhead (and any unburnt fuel), traveling at around Mach 2. It then impacts a MiG 17 with sufficient force to imbed itself into the airframe.
Whatever is left from this impact might give the Soviets some insight into the paint color used but, to allow them to completely reverse-engineer the missile? Hmmm, my money is on Stig providing the design specifics, and any missile wreckage possibly confirming various parts.

ric350

 

[Bougnas]

I was able to dig up a story of an Iranian officer defecting to the USSR with a brand-new M60 tank, which greatly affected development of both the T-62 and T-64.

Zaloga's old works on Soviet tanks aren't very accurate or are misinterpreted, but in any case it is highly dubious that the hijacking had any effect or ever existed, if you are referring to the one in 1961.

This is because the T-62 was formally accepted for service on the 9th of June 1961 and couldn't have been assembled in less than 6 months, and because all of its components preceded it in their final configuration well before the M60 even entered production.

It is dubious that it had any effect on the T-64 either as the design existed a long time before the event, and the only thing related to what NATO did is that the requirements were changed from protection against L7 from 500 instead of 800m. However they overestimated the performance of L7, which would be weird if they got a L7-armed tank and its ammo in 1961. So the event may not even have happened.

 

[ric350]

Didn’t a defecting NK pilot provide the US with its first intact MiG-15?

ric350

 

[flasheart]

Were the Soviets able to obtain and test any serviceable examples of US made aircraft after the collapse of South Vietnam or learn anything significant from inspecting crashed American aircraft such as the B52?

 

[thewalton]

Were the Soviets able to obtain and test any serviceable examples of US made aircraft after the collapse of South Vietnam or learn anything significant from inspecting crashed American aircraft such as the B52?

I’ve seen photos of an F-4 and a Mirage in the Soviet Union. Can’t remember, if they didn’t seem to be mock-ups. There are also stories of the Russians studying the F-14 after the Iranian Revolution

 

[Nick P]

Were the Soviets able to obtain and test any serviceable examples of US made aircraft after the collapse of South Vietnam or learn anything significant from inspecting crashed American aircraft such as the B52?

They certainly had access to the F-5, T-37, A-37, UH-1 and C-130 via Vietnam.

The Soviets Got an American F-5 Fighter From Vietnam

It’s no secret that the United States has flown captured — or otherwise acquired — Soviet and Russian aircraft for test, evaluation and training. The Soviet Union returned the favor. The RT video below contains some quite famous footage of a U.S.-made Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter — formerly...

warisboring.com

There was a lot of US equipment in Vietnam post-75. There are tales of African countries getting genuine US made spares for their machines from Vietnam via the USSR!

Vietnam Loves American Booty; What Did the Vietnam People's Army Do With All The Captured Weapons? - Weapons - Military Matters

At the end of the Vietnam War the VPA had a vast stock of captured material. What did they do with it all and what is still in use?

militarymatters.online

 

[MFOM]

I heard that the Soviets got at least one, possibly more F-14s during the Iran-Iraq war, either supplied by the Iranians for other equipment or from Iraq via Iranian defectors

 

[flasheart]

Didn't the CIA used to send people into Afghanistan in the 80's to examine crashed Soviet Aircraft?

 

[flasheart]

I heard that the Soviets got at least one, possibly more F-14s during the Iran-Iraq war, either supplied by the Iranians for other equipment or from Iraq via Iranian defectors

Given the Iraqi's at the time were using both Soviet and Western equipment and advisors was there ever any intelligence gathering and espionage going on within the Iraqi Armed Forces as various "advisors" tried to find out more about their competitors?

 

[flasheart]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the US was able to get its hand on aircraft such as the MIG 29 and SU 27 which are reportedly still used for aggressor training along with other item's of Soviet made hardware such as S300 SAM'S (apparently simply purchased from newly independent and very much broke Belarus). How much Soviet origin hardware was obtained by the west after the fall of communism and did anything similar ever happen going the other way (has Russia ever been able to get its hands on any modern Western hardware)?

 

[CV12Hornet]

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the US was able to get its hand on aircraft such as the MIG 29 and SU 27 which are reportedly still used for aggressor training along with other item's of Soviet made hardware such as S300 SAM'S (apparently simply purchased from newly independent and very much broke Belarus). How much Soviet origin hardware was obtained by the west after the fall of communism and did anything similar ever happen going the other way (has Russia ever been able to get its hands on any modern Western hardware)?

Allegedly the Russians have gotten some French kit, particularly tank fire control systems, from the Chinese, the Chinese having gotten their hands on it in that brief period of Western alignment between Mao's death and the Tianenmen Square incident.

 

[flasheart]

Allegedly the Russians have gotten some French kit, particularly tank fire control systems, from the Chinese, the Chinese having gotten their hands on it in that brief period of Western alignment between Mao's death and the Tianenmen Square incident.

Given China's habit of reverse engineering Russian equipment have there ever been any attempts on their part to illicitly obtain Russian hardware or technology?

 

[CV12Hornet]

Given China's habit of reverse engineering Russian equipment have there ever been any attempts on their part to illicitly obtain Russian hardware or technology?

I know the Russians were mighty ticked off at the Chinese for reverse-engineering the Su-27K into the J-11 and building it themselves. I can't recall any other major illicit attempts.

 

[Bougnas]

Allegedly the Russians have gotten some French kit, particularly tank fire control systems, from the Chinese, the Chinese having gotten their hands on it in that brief period of Western alignment between Mao's death and the Tianenmen Square incident.

Uh, the Russians simply got French thermal optics because they made a contract with the French themselves.

 

[CV12Hornet]

Uh, the Russians simply got French thermal optics because they made a contract with the French themselves.

Oh. Duh.

 

[Deleted member 2186]

My question is were have there ever been any examples of western personnel or aircraft defecting to the east or of Russia/China/USSR successfully covertly acquiring and evaluating western hardware and if so what were they able to learn?
For example there was an incident during the Gulf War where a Saudi pilots took his F15 and defected to Sudan.

Well after the fall of South Vietnam the Soviet Union got their hands on some F-5s: https://warisboring.com/the-soviets-grabbed-an-american-f-5-fighter-from-vietnam/

 

[Monk78]

Soviets could have got a Mirage F1 and Mirage III through Libya or Iraq ?

 

[Monk78]

They certainly had access to the F-5, T-37, A-37, UH-1 and C-130 via Vietnam.

The Soviets Got an American F-5 Fighter From Vietnam

It’s no secret that the United States has flown captured — or otherwise acquired — Soviet and Russian aircraft for test, evaluation and training. The Soviet Union returned the favor. The RT video below contains some quite famous footage of a U.S.-made Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter — formerly...

warisboring.com

There was a lot of US equipment in Vietnam post-75. There are tales of African countries getting genuine US made spares for their machines from Vietnam via the USSR!

Vietnam Loves American Booty; What Did the Vietnam People's Army Do With All The Captured Weapons? - Weapons - Military Matters

At the end of the Vietnam War the VPA had a vast stock of captured material. What did they do with it all and what is still in use?

militarymatters.online

Could the Soviets have copied the A-37 as a CAS aircraft and not produced the su25?