USN SU-27

[Tovarish 0]

To be honest, it was just a matter of reading the newest thread in the Lo-Mac aviation forums

[CuteQA 0]

Hope those mig29s will fly again with US paintschme

sad too see a nice plane grounded and the paint is like 1945 a6m5 in il2

[Tovarish 0]

From the flat tires and peeling paint, I'd say it's not likely to fly again any time soon. Wonder if any of the ones the US bought are. And this is not an early model MiG-29, it's either a "C" or an "S" model judging from the dorsal spine.

[blackdog~ 0]

More stuff.

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/2004/Navy/DN-SC-04-17201.JPEG

1991

[CuteQA 0]

http://maps.google.com/?ll=33.910426,-84.514944&spn=0.001066,0.001808&t=k

google map is fun!

[Supah 0]

More stuff.

http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/2004/Navy/DN-SC-04-17201.JPEG

1991

Those are A-4's and F-16N's, hardly eastern bloc technology

[blackdog~ 0]

woops, forgot that this was talking about migs in service not just paint schemes...

[Warden 0]

I always wondered why the US didnt sell these onto the German AF whos Mig 29's are due to leave service soon due to lack of spare parts.

[Tovarish 0]

They actually left service months ago, and lack of spare parts had nothing to do with it.

[Supah 0]

I always wondered why the US didnt sell these onto the German AF whos Mig 29's are due to leave service soon due to lack of spare parts.

They were sold to poland about two years ago because the luftwaffe is getting rid of a lot of its old fighters in favour of the Eurofighter.

[snoops_213 74]

Well totally out of the blue, but apparently the squadron of Mig-29's the US bought are in germany where US and German pilots practice with/against them. The US with german help bought them up to date. Sorry for digging this thread up thought someone might like to know

[Supah 0]

Well totally out of the blue, but apparently the squadron of Mig-29's the US bought are in germany where US and German pilots practice with/against them. The US with german help bought them up to date. Sorry for digging this thread up thought someone might like to know

you have a source for that?

[snoops_213 74]

Well totally out of the blue, but apparently the squadron of Mig-29's the US bought are in germany where US and German pilots practice with/against them. The US with german help bought them up to date. Sorry for digging this thread up thought someone might like to know

you have a source for that?

ooops how stupid sorry

http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/06/30/54664.html

is one story i've managed to dig up(thanks Spetz), read halfway down the page and Im so bloody forgetful i cant find where i saved to other story

[Supah 0]

Hmm nicely biased article that.

Quote[/b] ]The F-15, the F-16 and the F-18 have wide turning radii. Russian fighters, on the other hand, can turn on a dime by merely switch on their afterburners.

The F-15 might not be a great turn fighter but to say the Falcon and hornet have wide turn radiuses is just a joke. These planes are highly manouverable. Also to state that the russians have a great advantage because they can magically turn better if they turn on their afterburners is moronic, surprise surprise, the western jets have afterburners too! Also turning them on doesnt magically increase your turning ability. It might give you a bit more power but if you're slow allready you are still in trouble.

Quote[/b] ]Apart from in Canada, MiG-29 fighters also fought mock air battles with South Africa's Mirage-2000s. Again, the Russia planes defeated their enemies.

That can't have been a lengthy fight as South Africa doesnt own a single Mirage 2000. Shows the trustworthyness of this article. If they fought a SAAF mirage it would have either been a Mirage III, V or Dagger/Kfir. Thats like saying the F-16 is the best plane in the world because it can shoot down a MiG-15 from 30 miles with a AMRAAM.

Quote[/b] ]Chief designer Arkady Slobodskoi, the supervisor of the MiG-29 program, said, "if our plane is within range of an opponent and has a direct shot, the enemy can be considered destroyed. It only takes 5-6 machine gun bursts."

Yeeees the enemy pilot is just going to sit there and take it, we all know fighter pilots are suicidal idiots with deathwishes. Talk is cheap, the MiG-29 has never won an actual air engagement with a western built and operated fighter.

Quote[/b] ]The United States, which is aware of the impressive combat potential of Russian fighters, had even purchased a squadron of MiG-29s from Moldova after the Soviet Union disintegrated. (That squadron was deployed at an airfield near Chisinau.) Germany, which had obtained a number of MiG-29s after reunification, helped repair the Moldovan fighters. Both Germany and the United States now use these aircraft to train their pilots, so that the pilots can cope with the 7,000 Russian fighters in the world.

Well if this is true then the repairs done arent of the typical Deutsche Grundlichkeit variety as all the recent pictures I've seen of the moldavian aircraft show them as rotting hulks at museums or scrapyards. The German MiG-29's were used for DACT a bit. Coping with those 7000 russian fighters ..... 70% of them being MiG-17/19/21 .... yes most be highly annoying when you are swatting them from the sky with long range missiles. A very small portion of those are actually modern fighters and a very small portion of those are operated by an airforce that has the training and logistical capabillity of many western airforces.

Quote[/b] ]Military Balance magazine estimated that India had more than 500 Russian-made fighters. It was therefore not surprising that Indian pilots could defeat their American rivals, despite the U.S. Air Force's intensive combat-training programs.

Yes a MiG-23BN is a superior fighter then a F-16 simply because its russian! Also again those Indian MiG-21's must have been a enormous threat in air to air. Only the indian flankers are a real threat and even the indians admit that the ROE were horribly biased towards their own forces. Perhaps india should send some of their boys and their flankers to red flag and see how they compete on a level playing field, prepare to be disappointed india.

Quote[/b] ]On the other hand, American pilots have not confronted any serious adversaries for a long time. The U.S. Air Force dominated the skies over Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Iraq in 1991 and 2003. Iraqi planes were grounded during both campaigns. Therefore, mock combat is the only way to amass experience.

The long standing American Air Force mentality prevents its pilots from confronting their Russian counterparts because any possible setback would be detrimental to morale. An American Air Force pilot must be convinced that he can and must defeat the former "theoretical enemy." At the same time, these problems do not exist for mock combat exercises against Indian pilots because any defeats can be explained by inadequate training.

Stupidity at a higher level is hardly ever found. If there has ever been a military organisation that learned lesson from past engagements (Vietnam for instance) it has been the USAF. No matter how painfully the conclusions are they have been taken to heart and policy and equipment has been changed to incorporate these lessons. Meanwhile as we in NATO incorporate more and more airforces from the former eastern bloc we learn more and more about the flaws of the russian system which leads to massive waste of material and men and incredably low operational readyness. Also strategically trying to pull the same unnecesarrily cruel and counterproductive tricks that lost the soviets afghanistan in break away republics now doesnt seem THAT smart.

If these are your sources about military aviation I hope you never have to make decisions based on them.

[Tovarish 0]

wow, Pravda has not changed at all, has it? Or maybe it has and is just taking a few pointers from The Onion these days.