Here's a scary thought that unsettled me while driving my dump truck.
Apparently, the Russians have a "dead hand" retaliation system that is activated by a nuclear explosion sensor, and launches a [counter] attack against the US in case if it detects nuclear attack on Russia and the missile base cannot communicate with Moscow.
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I was thinking that in case of a particularly unlucky asteroid impact on Russia, if communications are lost with Moscow, and the impact is recognized as a nuclear attack, then Russia could launch its missiles and attack the USA. And that would trigger a global nuclear destruction.
One of my wood block suppliers has a MiG-25 sitting next to his office. He thinks he could just fill the tanks and fly it away...after 5 years of sitting.
And you can't dissuade him from this notion? Ask him if he could do that with his Lada sedan - then point out that the battery will be dead, the brake system contaminated and rusty... Then multiply that by 100 for the jet. And you can't just run to the corner Auto Parts for the fresh bits needed to get it going.
He still has to do is strip it down to the bare airframe anyway, just to wash the Cosmoline out of every nook and cranny. And flush and refill all the drained hydraulic, fuel and brake systems, and grease and oil 5,000 points.
And he'll *still* find lots of stuff that's gone bad from sitting, although maybe not as much from the mothballing preservatives
And he'll have to do a full teardown on the jet engines and the APU (if equipped) - Unless he has the full log books, he has to create new ones that have Zero Hours on the engines and that means rebuilds.
And he'll still need a new Russian spec Ni-Cad aircraft battery, and an Auxiliary Power Unit with all the adapters to plug into the plane and charge the batteries, perhaps a Huffer to get the engines going, and the fill adapter to get the jet fuel from a Civilian aircraft tanker into a Military fill fitting on the wings...
And all the Avionics & Radios will need to be repaired or upgraded to be usable. Half of it will probably need to be swapped out for American civil aviation versions that actually work - and it'll probably drop right in, because that's what they copied.
And he needs to get a Russian Military ejection seat and parachute system recertified and packed, and the access ladder to climb in...
It takes a Lot Of Crap to actually put a plane into the air.
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