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The US has acquired 81 obsolete Soviet-era combat aircraft from Kazakhstan, the Kyiv Post reported.
Kazakhstan, which is upgrading its air fleet, auctioned off 117 Soviet-era fighter and bomber aircraft, including MiG-31 interceptors, MiG-27 fighter bombers, MiG-29 fighters, and Su-24 bombers from the 1970s and 1980s.
The declared sale value was one billion Kazakhstani tenge, said the Post, or $2.26 million, equalling an average value for each plane of $19,300.
The US purchased 81 of the aged, unusable warplanes, said the Ukrainian Telegram channel Insider UA, per the Post.
Derived from the MiG-23, the MiG-27 was a ground-attack aircraft and saw action in conflicts like the Soviet-Afghan War.
Correction: April 28, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the currency conversion rate of the Kazakhstani tenge to the dollar. »
