In the Dniester region, 16 people were reported killed and 21 wounded in clashes Sunday between Russian and Ukrainian forces on the one hand and Moldovan forces on the other, in defiance of the ceasefire agreed in Istanbul at the weekend by the presidents of Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
LOS ANGELES TIMES, 22 July 1992—About 60 Ukrainian crew members of a Black Sea Fleet patrol boat mutinied Tuesday, raising the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag and sailing to the Ukrainian port of Odessa to protest rough treatment by their Russian superiors.
… The mutiny served as a reminder that the Black Sea Fleet is a tinderbox, vulnerable to any spark of nationalism …
The incident came close to exploding in the morning when Russian Black Sea Fleet commanders … sent several ships and a seaplane to cut it off. Among the interceptors was the missile boat, Impeccable, carrying an assault team ready to board the boat and seize it.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 5 October 1992—Ukraine is seeking support from Western nations for an ambitious plan to complete the conversion of its defense industry to civilian production in three to four years.
Victor I. Antonov, minister for the military-industrial complex, said Ukraine is pursuing conversion “in a very radical manner.” More than 500 commercial programs have been created, mainly involving medical and agricultural equipment …
Unlike Russia, Ukraine has decided against a policy of selling arms abroad to keep factories open and generate hard currency, he said. Instead, Ukraine plans to retain only a small military technology base to support its army, converting all other enterprises to civilian production …
AIR FORCE MAGAZINE, Mary C. Fitzgerald, September & October 1992 [reprinted with permission] — Russian military leaders are currently focusing not only on creating the Russian armed forces but also on developing a new military doctrine for the 1990s and beyond. A draft of a new Russian doctrine was published recently in Military Thought, the main theoretical journal of Russia’s armed forces.
This new doctrine identifies two direct military threats to Russia: the introduction of foreign troops in adjacent states and the buildup of air, naval, or ground forces near Russian borders. In addition, a violation of the rights of Russian citizens and of persons “ethnically and culturally” identified with Russia in republics of the former Soviet Union is viewed as “a serious source of conflicts.”
… The 1990 doctrine held that nuclear war “will” be catastrophic for all mankind, while the 1992 doctrine holds that it “might” be catastrophic for all mankind … Russia now views limited nuclear warfighting as a possibility. These changes may stem from the growing proliferation of nuclear weapons on Russian borders, which increases the possibility of a limited nuclear conflict.
… [General Rodionov, chief of the General Staff Academy of the Russian Armed Forces] contends that, for centuries, Russia has struggled to acquire an exit to the Baltic and Black seas and that “the deprivation of such free exits would contradict [Russia’s] national interests.” … Attempts by any state in Europe, America, or Asia to capitalize on existing disputes among the CIS states or to strengthen its influence in these states … would violate Russia’s national interests and security.
… General Rodionov’s bold views about the new doctrine may well reflect a civil-military rift concerning the extent to which old Soviet imperial interests should be pursued by military means.
AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 23 November 1992—Military commanders at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) and their civilian counterparts at NATO Headquarters, Brussels … see dangers looming both inside Russia and among its neighbors as a result of growing military factions in the unstable Russian political situation …
“There is still an awful lot of hardware in Russia, and an awful lot of nuclear weapons in Russia,” [British General Sir Brian Kenny, deputy supreme allied commander Europe] said.
DEDICATION
This story is dedicated to the memory of my good friend, business associate, and teacher, Jim Harvey. You were always there when I needed you with your knowledge, professional counsel, helpfulness, and most importantly, your friendship.
This story is also dedicated to the memory of my friend, California State Assemblyman B. T. Collins — soldier, statesman, incorrigible Irishman, and determined, inspirational leader.
As the old Irish toast says: May you both be in Heaven a half-hour before the Devil knows you’re dead.
EPIGRAPH
If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannonshots.
PROLOGUE
Deliberate with caution,
but act with decision;
and yield with graciousness or
oppose with firmness.
Buoyed by crisp, cold air, the tandem two-seat Mikoyan-Gurevich-23UB fighter leapt into the air on a tongue of flame like a tiger pursuing its prey through the trees. Pavlo Grigor’evich Tychina, a Captain First Class of Air Defense Aviation of the Fourteenth Air Army, L’vov, Ukrainian Republic, moved the gear handle to the UP position as soon as he saw the altimeter swing upward. It was such a great day for flying, with light winds and near fifty-kilometer visibility, that Tychina didn’t even mind when the LOW PNEU PRESSURE warning light came on. He simply started pumping the emergency manual landing gear pressurization handle near his right knee to build up enough pressure in the gear uplock system to fully raise the landing gear. Nothing was going to spoil this flying day, even this cranky twenty-year-old warplane.
Tychina, a twenty-eight-year-old pilot and flight commander in the Ukrainian Air Force, immediately dropped his oxygen mask and took a deep breath, like a platform diver who had just risen to the surface after a deep dive, then swung a small auxiliary microphone to his lips. He never liked flying with his oxygen mask — it was unnecessary anyway, since they rarely flew above four or five thousand meters where oxygen was really necessary. Flying in southeastern Europe was generally pretty good, as long as you stayed above the smog level of about one thousand meters. He raised flaps and slats passing 450 kph (kilometers per hour), then checked out the right side of his cockpit canopy on the progress of his wingman for today’s orientation flight.
His wingman was an F-16D Fighting Falcon fighter from the Republic of Turkey. The sleek tandem two-seat fighter and attack plane was on a goodwill visit, representing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Since the Ukraine had applied for NATO membership earlier in the year, NATO member countries had been doing more and more of these exchange flights, getting to know their Ukrainian counterparts. While these exchange flights were taking place, Turkish radar controllers and military commanders were inspecting Ukrainian radar facilities and military bases, and Ukrainian military commanders and politicians were doing the same in Turkey, Germany, Belgium, and even the United States. Pavlo Tychina never thought he would ever see his country join a Western military alliance, and he never expected that the West would ever so heartily embrace his country in return.
Someday soon, Tychina thought, the Ukraine will be wealthy enough to build planes like the F-16. Hell, Turkey was an agricultural country, not much more industrialized than the Ukraine, but they were license-building F-16 Falcons there and even exporting them to other countries. He shook his head in disgust. The Ukraine should sell off its MiG-23s, MiG-27s, and Sukhoi-17s. The F-16, as both a fighter and attack plane, could replace them all. That’s what they should buy: F-16s. It might take fifty MiGs to get one well-equipped F-16, but so what? Everyone knew the F-16 was at least fifty times better than the MiG-23.