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Why do US Air Force pilots discredit Russian jets?
Andrew Summer
Andrew Summer, Lecturer of International Relations at Beltei International University (2014-present)
Updated 12d ago · Upvoted by Robert Chandler, Licensed commercial pilot and Doug Towsley, former Military & Govt Service at U.S. Air Force
Let me shock you: because they are right. Yes, they have a valid reason or let`s rather say they have MANY good reasons. Now people will come and explain to you about design philosophies and intended use and all of this. However, such things do not matter really. What matters is success. Here we can see why Russian jets are discredited and rightfully so. Many people will be quick to point out the overwhelmingly superiority of American jets in numbers and their abundant supports like AWACS and tankers. That`s why I would like to build my case looking at unfair situations, and by this I mean unfair for the western jets.
Pakistani F16 shot down 10 Soviet and Afghan jets during the Soviet adventure in Afghanistan. This means, a not so developed nation with export version western planes shot down first rated Soviet jets with Soviet pilots following Soviet doctrines.
Iranian F14 and F4 fared pretty well against Iraqi jets including Soviet models. Here we speak about Iranian fighters without proper support under an embargo downing Soviet made equipment in Iraqi hands that had the support of many countries in terms of high tech weapons, training, and doctrines.
Israeli American made jets downed repeatedly great numbers of Arab planes of Soviet origin. Here we have to really look at the picture. There were even engagements in the war of attrition with Mig`s flown by Soviet pilots against Israeli planes with Israeli pilots. OK, there was one setback. While the air-to-air superiority was never in doubt, the Egyptian air defense network scored some successes. However, the Israelis did what western countries always do: they adapted to it and dealt with the problem. Western jets regularly come with more computing power so that it is easier to adapt to new challenges, something the mono-role Soviet jets have problems with. This might, however, be less pronounced nowadays with the new multi-role models.
Vietnam, yes, Vietnam! Here the Americans faced a big challenge and overcame it by adapting to it. So had the US Navy a success rate of 13:1. They splashed 13 Vietnamese for each of their losses at the end of the war. Furthermore, they were hampered by bad rules of engagement and a comprehensive defense network.
All the said situation see the western jets at a considerable disadvantage. The Pakistani as export customers against the Soviets, the Iranians without support, the outnumbered and outgunned Israelis and the Americans hampered by RoE and air defense. Still, each time the western jets prevailed and came out on top. On the other hand, even in peace the now Russian made jets encounter a lot of problems with spare parts, high maintenance requirements, under trained pilots and simply the wrong doctrine (as history has shown repeatedly).
Apart from all this, I do sincerely doubt that the majority of US pilots really discredit the Russian jets knowing fully their potential. The first step to losing is simply underestimating one`s opponents. This is, however, a question of future engagement. With regards to past experiences, be it the performance of Indian Flankers during exercises or real war situation, there might be a lot of justification for discrediting them.
Edit: Who reads the comments to this answer will see that I am repeatedly accused of cherry picking my data. At first, I mistook this a sign of people trying to excuse the performance of Russian jets, but I have come to understand that there is some confusion about the way one makes an analysis. Please let me clarify this.
Whoever has learnt how to analyse data and draw conclusions from it knows that one has to sort the data and exclude everything that has no relevance. This is important to avoid data pollution which might distort the picture in the end.
Points have been made about the Arab-Israeli-wars. Here I might emphasis that I was comparing especially the Yom Kippur War and the preceding War of Attrition. Both wars include fighter jets from both sides being of the same generation.
For the Vietnam war, one has to use data highly selectively. If you want to compare jets, you might look at their performance in ground attacks, air to air, and their ability to survive in an enemy air defense zone. Now look at the Vietnam war. Did the Vietnamese planes bomb targets in South Vietnam in an US air defense zone? No, so we have to exclude all data concerning bombing and ability to survive air defense. What remains is the a2a part. But even this part has to be cut into sub parts. Did the US attack Vietnamese jets weighted down by bombs? No. This means, there is nothing to compare. One has to focus on fighter on fighter engagements because this is the only combat action both sides actually undertook. My point is the adaptability to the challenge, so I look at the data after they adapted. As the Navy was the best in this, I concentrated my analysis on them. If you want to know about the USAF, their ratio is 3.8 to 1 in their favor. This means, they also were victorious but on a smaller scale. As I do not try to establish the size of the victory but merely its existence as grounds for discrediting the Russian jets, this is simply enough.