Texas arms firm vanishes after offering tanks to Ukraine
The weapons various countries are delivering as military aid to Ukraine do not always come from military warehouses. Some of the equipment is provided by private arms trading companies. A few years ago, the offerings of one such company included dozens of aircraft and considerable amounts of other weaponry.
Ukrainian Defense Express service stumbled upon an unusual company. Registered in Texas, the Redfish Trading Company offered a wide selection of heavy military equipment a decade ago. Its offerings included T-72 tanks.
It was noteworthy that these were not old, decommissioned units, but 100 vehicles in the T-72B3 variant, which is new and used by the Russian army. Redfish Trading Company also offered Buk anti-aircraft systems.
These too were not decommissioned equipment but the Buk-MB variant, a new version of the system, modernized and officially sold by the Belarusian NPOOO OKB TSP company.
The aviation part of the offer was equally interesting. It included Mi-24W and Mi-24D helicopters, 15 Su-25 attack aircraft described as refurbished, as well as brand new Su-25K and Su-25UBK, which are export versions of this aircraft.
Hundreds of tanks and aircraft
The offer was supplemented with a list of typical surplus – Bo 105P helicopters, over 100 T-72A tanks, BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, T-55 tanks, and BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles.
The Texan company also declared the ability to regularly supply rocket missiles for the BM-21 Grad system and deliver military aircraft like MiG-29, Su-27, or old Su-17s.
The Ukrainian service was unable to confirm whether any part of the arsenal, sufficient to spark a major armed conflict, was purchased and delivered to a buyer. However, the Ukrainians note that currently, traces of Redfish Trading Company's activities have been removed, and the company that had offered hundreds of military units now only remains mentioned in the media.
