Originally posted by freebie
It took a while for someone to publish that stats for Vietnam. Why is it so commonly 'assumed' that just because Russian aircraft haven't seen combat they're inferior anyway. The Mig-21 excelled in its era and the Mig-29 would have done the same under any other circumstances. Quote the Gulf War's all you like but the simple fact of the matter is the Mig-29 is an exceptional aircraft superior to anything currenlty in the USA's arsenal.

And to pre-counter any arguments about the Gulf War's
Desert Storm - only 5 mig-29's got into the air and were vastly outnumbered ... one managed to evade almost the entire USAF and reach Iran.
Iraqi Freedom - no Mig-29's got into the air because of 12 years of economic sanctions (no spare parts) and were found to have already been rendered useless years before.
Remember that Jet fighters need more servicing then F-1 or indy cars.

And just in case anyone is immature enough to claim again that the mig-29 has not been proven as a successful design they obviously aren't aware of the fall or Communism in Germany. A fact that shocks me beyond belief. The German air force uses Mig-29's F16's and F15's and has done extensive tests to determine the combat effectiveness of their air force. The mig-29 came out on top of the F15 and F16 in air to air combat every time. And this is the result of tests in a Western Biased country.

BTW a quick query ... what is the most capable fighter in service in a modern Air Force currently?
I want to see if I can draw as stupid responses as I've already seen in this thread.

Originally posted by ultra_phoenix

Originally posted by Uninen

Between 1966 and 1972 US aircraft shot down total of 54 mig-21s. In the same period MIG-21s shot down 103 F-4s, and many other aircraft. The F-4s alone lost 206 crew members, and of course an F-4 costs more than twice the price of a MIG-21. ..This was in Vietnam!

54 Mig-21 ?

North-Vietnamese :

Mig-17 Fresco : 32 US aircrafts shot down ( 100 Mig-17 have been shot down by the USAF/USN ).

Mig-19 Farmer : 8 US aircrafts shot down ( 10 Mig-19 have been shot down by the USAF/USN ).

Mig-21 Fishbed : 36 US aircrafts shot down ( 86 Mig-21 have been shot down by the USAF/USN ).

Total :

NV : 76 Kills / 196 losses.
USA : 196 Kills / 76 losses.