Panama finds MiG fighter jets on North Korean arms ship

[DissidentVoice]

33. These are all good points

A couple of other things, though.

In Korea, at least in the first year or so, the MiG-15's were largely flown by Soviet and Chinese "advisors," some of whom were veteran WWII pilots, like Ivan Kozhedub. There were also a handful of Eastern Europeans (Czechs, Bulgarians).

The F-86 was a very good airplane but the reason for the large kill ratio was that the U.S. (and one squadron of South African) pilots flying them were much better trained. Canadair built the Sabre for the RCAF/NATO with a better engine and Commonwealth Aircraft in Australia built the Sabre for the RAAF with better engine AND armament...both of which were a vast improvement on the original U.S. design.

There were some Soviet "advisors" flying MiG-21's in Vietnam, too, but not nearly as many. As you stated, the NVA pilots had been well-trained. However, the biggest thorn in the side of USAF/USN/USMC fighter jocks was the even older MiG-17, which had guns-only armament, and wasn't even supersonic...but was a smaller bird that could fly circles around F-4's, which didn't even have guns until the F-4E (earlier AF versions started carrying centreline gun pods, but they were not very effective, and Navy/Marine birds never got gun armament).

In the India/Pakistan conflict, the Indian Air Force flew licence-built MiG-21's and were damn good at it, basically hacking the Pakistani Air Force and its hot-rod F-104 Starfighters out of the sky.

The F-15 was designed initially for one purpose: to shoot down the (overestimated) MiG-25. The F-16 was supposed to be 50/50 air/mud, to take out what the F-15's didn't get.

The F-22 of today is an overengineered, overcomplex airplane overdesigned to do its job. The F-35 is a money pit that is starting to irritate hell out of some overseas customers who are getting tired of waiting. The Royal Australian Air Force has bought F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and the Royal Canadian Air Force is considering the British/Spanish/Italian/German Eurofighter Typhoon. The Swedes are kicking hell out of the export market with their much cheaper but still firecracker SAAB Gripen.

The USAF could easily re-equip with the advanced F-16's and F-15's (Strike Eagle derivative) that they're building for the export market... but the four-star brass at the Pentagon would consider that too much of a "loss of prestige."

The West first got its knickers in a twist over the MiG-29, until the ones that Germany inherited from the East German Air Force were found to be limited, point-defence interceptors. The Su-27 was (and is) rightly regarded as more of a threat.

We have really fallen behind the ball by putting so much faith in the F-22 and F-35.

My former Air National Guard unit flew gun-nose F-4E's and were the first Guard unit to get the F-16C/D. The Guard is responsible for 100% of the air defence of the CONUS, but so many of the F-15's and F-16's are wearing out that they're not up to the job...not to mention that a lot of the units that flew them have been re-roled as transport, drone or A-10 mud moving units.

George W. Bush was supposed to be such a great friend of the military, but it was under his watch that the wearout started getting really bad, but of course, replacing those airplanes wasn't important. Having "boots on the ground" for his grudge match against Saddam Hussein was.