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In October of 1999, part of two US Navy squadrons from the US Naval Air
Base Oceana, flew to Laage, Germany to work with the 73rd Fighter
Squadron of the German Air Force, working as an aggressor squadron for
two weeks!! While Mig.29s have participated at Red Flag, this is the
first time a US Navy has worked exclusively with another squadron that
flys the Mig.-29 as their primary aircraft!
Now that Germany has combined East with West, it has placed the German
Air Force is in a unique situation by having the most extensively
exported modern jets from the former Soviet Union plus the infra-
structure that supported the aircraft! The pilots who fly the Mig.-29
of the 73rd Squadron feel they are THE BEST combination of plane/pilot
in the world! ;-) As aggressor pilots they get lots of flying time
(about eighty hours per month). The German pilots who fly the Mig.-29
and use Western and creative tactics feel they are flying the best
plane in the world, "bar none!" An unbeatable combination of plane and
pilot!!!
The aggressor squadron provides a syllabus or, course on how to best
fight the Soviet/Russian air warfare system!
This is the combination of air craft and GCI that most countrys that
fly the Mig.-29 tend to use. The Russians are able to spend less money
on the aircraft's radar developement and usage but, this causes them
to make their air defense to be more extensive. The 73rd Fighter
Squadron also uses the F-4 Phantom 2s to simulate Soviet aircraft like
the Mig.-23, etc.. The learning of English, diference in tactics,
little usage of GCI, being inovative in the developement of new tactics
when confronted with a new situations, some pilots flying skills were
not deemed good enough, plus the squadron "culture" being different
eliminated most of the pilots! The 73rd Fighter Squadron has been part
of the Lufwaffe eight years. The manditory retirement age is forty-one!
Four pilots from each of two squadrons (US Navy's VFA-106 Squadron and
VFC-12 the Aggressor Squadron) eight F/A-18C aircraft from the and
support staff of one hundred and fifty people for the squadrons made
the trip to Laage. Some of the pilots are relatively new, "nuggets"
(little more than one hundred and fifty flight hours) while others are
experienced to the point where they are "instructor pilots". Both
squadrons are based at Oceana Naval Air Station -Virginia Beach,
Virginia. The flight to Laage, Germany was non-stop with the help of
"two" KC-10 Extenders. The F/A-18Cs made six inflight refuelings,
taking four thousand seven hundred gallons each time! The total flight
time was nine hours.
While the pilots of the 73rd Fighter Squadron provides a syllabus or
course for the "student pilots" they would really like to go up against
different aircraft of the world to prove their point! They have some
time break the particular course to really demonstrate how their Mig.
-29s are superior to the visiting aircraft. Then they have to go back
again and provide the lesson they were supposed to in the first place.
Especially up against the F/A-18C's. The aircraft that is most similiar
to the Mig. -29. While "air intell" has their evaluations about the
capability of the Mig.-29 against every combat aircraft in the west.
Dispite what air intell says, pilots of the 73rd Fighter Squadron feel
they can beat the F-15Cs and the SU-27s on any given day!! The range
of which practiced over was not instruments with "ACMI" where the
results would be conclusive.
The all pilots exchange rides as pilots and passengers.
The aircraft are
very similiar in performance dispite what the specs are. If one reads
the specifications of both aircraft, you would most likely conclude
that the F/A-18 would win the BVR fight while the Mig.-29 would win
the WVR fight. Well guess what,,, don't assume! Specs show the F/A-18
manuevering better than the Mig.-29. The Mig.-29 having a distinctive
edge in WVR combat. As it turns out the radar for the Mig.-29 while
having a faster computer processor, is very inferior to the F/A-18's.
The AMRAAM missile has a far more usable range than does the Adder!
In performance the two aircraft are very similiar but, if there is an
edge, it MUST go to the Mig.-29! The Mig.-29 has a thrust to weight
that is in between the F-16 and F/A-18. There are tactics the F/A-18,s
can use that equalize the advantage the Mig.-29 has over them in the
WVR fight! There are tactics the Mig.-29 that equalize the advantage
the F/A-18 has in the BVR fight! The "beam manuerver" is just one of
several tactics!!
In a casual sesson the pilots discussed the marits of each of their
aircraft! The Mig.-29 is better in performance than the F/A-18C in the
following areas;
1) The Mig.-29 has a better thrust to weight ratio.
2) The Mig.-29 is better at high speed manuevering.
3) The Mig.-29 is the most highly exported threat in the world.
4) In this two week training syllabus the Mig.-29 was restricted
in some of its performance!
5) The Mig.-29s accumulate more information on how best to defeat
Western air combat systems!! Then the Westerners can then adjust
to make themselves less vunerable.
6) The Mig.-29 is more difficult to fly.
7) The initial purchase price of the Mig.-29 is "HALF" that of the
F/A-18C!
The F/A-18C is better in performance than the Mig.-29 in the following
areas;
1) The F/A-18C is better than the Mig.-29 in most of the important
specifications. Reality is different!
2) The F/A-18C has a much better radar than the Mig.-29.
3) The F/A-18C/radar using the AMRAAM has much better range and
capability than does the Mig.-29/radar with the Adder. Giving the
F/A-18C a distinct edge to the F/A-18C in the BVR combat arena.
Disguarding the usage of tactics.
4) The F/A-18C has better pitch control and high AOA at low speed.
Dispite the fact the F/A-18 must land on an aircraft carrier, the
advantage the F/A-18 has over the Mig.-29 is so slight, that for
practicle purposes it doesn't exist!
5) The "gun symbology" for the F/A-18C is far easier to use than
the Mig.-29's.
The "hard deck" (mininmum altitude) on these syllabus sessions was
eight thousand feet.
The 73rd Fighter Squadron have found that doing high "G" manuevers
before entering aircombat improves ones "G tolerance"! Scientist have
known for quite a while that G tolerance improves with experience.
While watching the program, one of the instructors was pointing to
something on the black board. The sketches show the Mig.-29s using
the beam manuever to get in close to the F/A-18s.
The first course was two F/A-18s aginst two Mig.-29s and two F-4
Phantoms (simulating the Mig.-23s).
GCI contacted the F/A-18s and told them where the "bogeys" were comming
from. (They are "bogeys" while they are unknown, they become "bandits"
when they are determined to be bad guys)
The F/A-18Cs detected two bogeys of which after interrogating with
"IFF", assign them to be bandits. There was a group of two followed by
another group of two, many miles back. The F/A-18 fired two AMRAAM
missiles while still in BVR. One missile was determined to kill one of
the Mig-29s. The other Mig.-29 dove towards the deck and almost took
himself out of air combat arena, comming close to the hard deck. The
F/A-18s blew through the Mig.-29s and set up for BVR shots against the
next two aircraft, Mig.-23s. The F/A-18 fired two more AMRAAM missiles
and killed the Mig.-23s. The last Mig.-29 re-entered the combat arena,
fired two missiles at the F/A-18s. The performance parameters of which
the missiles were fired, made the probablility was low. The F/A-18s
pulled six "G" manuevers and the missile shots were deemed as misses.
Combat was broken off by the F/A-18.
During one of the air combat sessions one F/A-18 departed from control
flight!!
When all was said and done, USAF/USN "air intelligence" was correct
on almost everything they suspected about the Mig.-29! That the tactics
the air intell people for US Navy thought would work well on the Mig.
-29 were indeed capable of doing the job. It also validated the tactics
the F/A-18 community decided would be the most effective the against
the Mig.-29. These tactics were somewhat different than what air intell
had concluded. The syllabus also allowed the F/A-18Cs to develope a
tactic to defeat the "Cobra"manuever. The narrator referred to it as
the "verticle manuever"!
In a casual recreation times pilots from all squadrons would get
together and one could not tell the pilots from one side or the other
without being able to hear them speak (their accents) or their
uniforms! They liked the same video games and they all wanted to win!
The "Type A" personality is very evident in all of them! They are all
strong in personality, very competitive in virtually everything they
do. During a rest session one the last day in Germany, three of the
F/A-18 pilots were allowed to use the simulator for the Mig.-29! The
last person to use the simulator was the squadron commander for
VFA-106. After flying for a while he did some touch and goes. As he
was comming in for the final landing. The rest of the squadron and the
Luftwaffe pilots decided to play a joke on the commander in the
control room. They entered into the computer that the runway was "iced
over" and added a cross winds of thirty-five miles per hour! Needless
to say, the commander wiped out!!!! Everybody had a good laugh! ;-)
The view on the barricade is much better
Greetz Sammie
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Mig-29 vs F/C 18 ( English )
