Ukrainian Su-27UB Aircraft Now Exhibited at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

The National Museum of the United States Air Force exhibited an updated Su-27UB, which previously belonged to the Ukrainian Air Force.

The post was shared on the museum’s Facebook page. Before that, the plane was parked there without engines.

It is known that the aircraft rolled off the assembly line on March 30, 1988, had a tail number 01, and was in service with the 100th Separate Naval Fighter Regiment of the USSR Navy.

This regiment was stationed in Crimea and formed in 1986. After the collapse of the USSR, the aircraft became the property of Ukraine and continued to serve in the Ukrainian Air Force.

In 2008, the aircraft was demilitarized and sold to Pride Aircraft, a private company from the United States.

The aircraft was assigned the registration number N132SU by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Then, in about 2011, the aircraft was sold to Meridican, and later, in 2018, the number N132SU was canceled.

Further, the aircraft was most likely used as an “aggressor” in U.S. Air Force exercises.

In addition, the aircraft could have been used to assess capabilities, test radars, weapons, and other detection and countermeasures systems as part of the Foreign Material Exploitation (FME) program.

The mysterious fate of another Su-27UB with number N131SU, which allegedly crashed in 2017 during such tests, can serve as confirmation of this theory.

The Su-27UB is not the first aircraft to enter the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force after being used in the FME program, as the MiG-23MS is known to be one of them.

Militarnyi previously reported that the United States used Czechoslovakian L-39 and L-29 aircraft to test artificial intelligence in combat.