Oh, I see! OK, Bjornster, it's time for some edimucation. Put away that copy of Playboy, spit out that gum, pay attention and take notes! ;)
1) It ain't a race, it's combat!
2) Look at the title. The element of surprise can often be a deciding advantage.
3) Any figther pilot who thinks he is safe because he is up against older aircraft has a body bag with his name on it.
4) The prototype of the Mig-25 first flew in 1964. It went into active service in 1970. The F-100 remained in global active service until 1971 and remained in service within the U. S. in the Air National Guard until 1979.
5) The former Soviet Union had two tiers of pilots, a relatively small number of elite pilots with extensive training and a large number with with minimal training. That's because their defense of the Motherland was based upon a large number of low tech aircraft vs a relatively small number of high tech aircraft. In other words, a U. S. vs Soviet Union fight. The lesser pilots would fly side by side to greet the invaders with a shower of missiles. Pretty hard to fight when you are dodging ten missiles coming at you, high tech ride or not! Having fired their missiles, that group would leave their station and head home only to be immediatetly replaced on station by a second wave flying side by side and launching yet another flight of missiles. Repeat until clear, hee, hee! So what's the point?
The point is that the majority of CCCP pilots, except for the elite, were not nearly was good as were the Western pilots. With the strategy at hand, elite pilots were not necessary. That made it easy to train replacements in time of war.
6) In the West we gave our pilots high tech, on board radar and weapons. The Soviet Union relied primarily upon ground based radar. Why? Because we stressed independent thinking and action with our pilots whereas the Soviet Union wanted everything to come from Command. So, they didn't want their pilots knowing too much in the air. Command would say, "Go here, attack these aricraft". It was all strategy from the ground. The result was that the majority of their pilots weren't allowed to take independent initiative. That's a disadvantage. If Soviet ground radar couldn't see a Bandit in rugged, mountain terrain, the Russky pilot would have a difficult time even knowing that the Bandit was there!
7) Could an F-16 take down a Mig-29 in a guns only fight? Well, that actually happend during the Gulf War. The opposing Iraqi pilots were so poorly trained that, despite having good aircraft, the F-16 pilot didn't even need to use missiles!
There will be a quiz tomorrow. Class dismissed! ;)
by chrism7262 » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:31 pm 
....wa...that........wow... 
