Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
We have always had folks who trumpet that Soviet hardware as "dangerously equivalent" to ours.
Yet when we come up against it directly we roll over it like a steamroller.
I have great confidence that our latest would easily defeat anything they can throw at us. And our PILOTS are the best trained in the world by far.
The sad fact is we are directed by rank amateurs, whose lack of experience is rather obvious after their years of practice...
Ask a US jet fighter pilot how he feels about actually being in the seat and facing off against that MiG. He wouldn't like it, regardless of the odds being in his favor. In an ambush scenario, our rules of engagement probably limit what we could do before the MiG gets its shots off. The MiG could then turn tail and quickly outrun the fighter. This happened in Iraq with a MiG-25 (the 31's predecessor) during Desert Storm.
Originally Posted By: wikipedia
In another incident, an Iraqi MiG-25PD, after eluding eight USAF F-15s at long range, fired three missiles at General Dynamics EF-111A Raven electronic warfare aircraft, forcing them to abort their mission and leave attacking aircraft without electronic jamming support.[N 1][43]
In yet another incident, two MiG-25s approached a pair of F-15s, fired missiles at long range (which were evaded by the F-15s), and then outran the American fighters. Two more F-15s joined the pursuit, and a total of 10 air-to-air missiles were fired at the MiG-25s, although none reached them.[44] According to the same sources, at least one F-111 was also forced to abort its mission by a MiG-25 on the first 24 hours of hostilities, during an air raid over Tikrit.[45]
Ask a bomber or AWACS (the MiG's intended audience) pilot about facing off against that MiG, and he would not like it at all, no sir.
Thats why i think we need an upgraded f-14. The Aim 54 had a 100 mile range, and the f-14's radar was very powerful. With the Bears still in service a long range interceptor would be good to have, you can see russia is still using theirs( mig 31).