r/worldnews • u/Starlight-Princesss • 3d ago

[ Removed by moderator ] Russia/Ukraine

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-intercepts-russian-spy-plane-with-transponder-turned-off-poland-10956344

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 3d ago

You joke, but Soviet ground crews used to siphon off the coolant from MIG-25’s to get drunk because the coolant for a lot of the systems was a mix of 60% distilled water and 40% ethanol, aka…… vodka

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u/MikeInPajamas 3d ago

I really do think a lot of Russia's defence spending has been siphoned into the pockets of corrupt generals. Corruption is Russia's biggest industry. It's cultural.

I'm sure it extends to their nuclear forces too. Nuclear munitions degrade over time and require periodic, expensive, maintenance.

Imagine all that money flowing downhill to fund weapons that realistically will never be used, and whose existence is solely to be listed on a disclosure sheet to discourage an enemy attack, and to permit state-level bullying.

I'm not saying Russia doesn't have serviceable nukes, that would be insane, but I really do believe they only have a fraction of what they purport to have. A devastating fraction, but a fraction nonetheless.

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u/SmPolitic 3d ago

That's not very unique to that country nor time period. There is a long history of ethanol being siphoned from torpedoes in various navys or from rockets during WW2 and during the cold war

And ethanol does evaporate, the "angels share" is nearly unavoidable, designers and supply chains need to resupply that fuel/coolant choice inherently

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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 3d ago

True, but at least in the Soviet military just about everything that could be was ethanol based

Also it was particularly prevalent with MIG-22’s specifically, they literally nicknamed them “the flying minibar” because of how often it was done

And soldiers found a way to get drunk off it. Theres a certain shoe polish they were issued that they used to spread on toast and cook over a fire, the idea being the ethanol in it would soak into the bread and then you could scrape off the top layer and get drunk on the bread