Modern Fighter ACE?

To become a fighter ace you have to reach the magic number of 5 kills in aerial combat.

WWII, Korea and Vietnam have produced aces but is the day of the ace over? Is is likely in modern combat for a single pilot to get 5 kills anymore?

Are there any modern fighter aces?

I don't think there is, because the countries that have a good air forces we are either friends with or won't go against. And the countries we have went against had their airforces destroyed by bombs and cruise missiles.

I don't think that there are any known modern Aces... Check the Israeli AF for that. Also, don't count on too many more well known aces. With the advancement in stealth, ECM, and weapons technologies the kills will be equally shared.
Do you know what I mean? Say the U.S. goes against china with only a fleet of AESA F-15s. That would give the U.S. the slight upper hand but since there are so many (though older) fighters to take out you would likely see aces emerge from that kind of conflict.
Do you see the U.S. going on anything more then a limited engagement with china any time soon? No. So don’t expect aces to emerge unless something like a squadron of F/A-22s where sent in to take out an airforce.

I think the days of Fighter aces may be over, well in the old sense of the term anyway. The days of fighter pilots engaged in duels in the sky belongs to a bygone age. With advent of Beyond Visual Range weapons it perhaps takes less skill to shoot down an opponent with a missile than it does eye ball to eye ball so to speak.
I doubt that any Aircraft would survive to get get within cannon range.

A BVR missile kill would still count toward the 5 needed . A F-14 tomcat could track and fire on enough planes to become a ACE in one pass. So if you fired 5 missiles and hit 5 different planes you would become a ACE.

I think a single F-22 took out 5 F-16 in a training exercise in a matter of minutes.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
A BVR missile kill would still count toward the 5 needed . A F-14 tomcat could track and fire on enough planes to become a ACE in one pass. So if you fired 5 missiles and hit 5 different planes you would become a ACE.

I think a single F-22 took out 5 F-16 in a training exercise in a matter of minutes.

Yeah, then again most modern fighter jets with active missiles could do the same. And yes, the F/A-22 simulated atleast taking down 5 F-16s in a very short time.

I think your right Christ unless we go to war with Russia or China theres not much of a chance of anyone becoming a ACE. Plus a war like that would likely go nuclear and it wouldnt really matter.

I wonder if a fighter pilot got a UCAV kill would that count our what about a Helicopter

I suppose it would depend upon how you class what it takes to become a fighter ace, i.e. should a BVR missile kill count towards a fighter pilots Ace status or does an Ace kill have to be up close and personal with cannons al-la Red Barron?

I found a interesting article

The Age of the Fighter Ace Ends

"In the last half century, only three U.S. Air Force pilots have become aces (destroying five or more enemy aircraft.) There may never be any more aces. In nearly a century of operations, only 816 American air force fighter pilots have become aces. Most (87 percent) of those were in World War II. There were 39 aces in the Korean war, and only three during the Vietnam war. In the last ten years, seven pilots scored two victories, and three shot down three aircraft. None scored four or more victories."

"Moreover, the availability of nuclear weapons has restrained the major world powers from fighting each other directly. So the only wars are between second and third rate proxies, versus American fighter pilots. These smaller nations tend to see their air forces destroyed on the ground, or have too few aircraft in the air to allow American pilots to become aces. The biggest threat to American pilots is anti-aircraft fire, either bullets or missiles''

Pretty interesting seems in the last 10 years 3 pilots came only 2 more planes away from becoming a ace, I did not know that. Also there has been a sharp drop of in number of aces in wars.

WW2-816
Korea-39
Vietnam-3
Gulfwar 1&2-0


strategypage.com...


[edit on 15-1-2005 by ShadowXIX]