It was sure a wake up call for the U.S. Air Force when the Indian Air Force handed the Americans their hats in mock air battles. Expected when going up against the Israelis.
You wrote: "the Indian Air Force handed the Americans their hats in mock air battles."
Not entirely true. The US went in without it's best equipment and with handicaps. Kind of like fighting with one hand tied behind your back. Not that the indian pilots are bad its just that our technology trumps theirs, and in the event of a true battle they wouldn't stand a chance. Read More About it here. http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/007810.php
"It was sure a wake up call for the U.S. Air Force when the Indian Air Force handed the Americans their hats in mock air battles. Expected when going up against the Israelis."
The facts are simple. In the mock air battle against India, the US guys {by agreement} couldn't use their "look ahead" radar capabilities, which means the one thing that gives us the biggest advantage, the capability to know where they are before they find you, was given up. It's like fighting with a blindfold on. Even then, they didn't beat us, but made our "losses" too high. It proved {once again} that you should never get into a fair fight.
If the other nations are getting close in technology terms, and this new aircraft gives us a big jump, good on us.
Joe, Cope India 2005 was an exercise designed for one purpose: To alay the Indian fears of newer F-16s in the hands of the Pakistanis.
Cope India 2005 pitted our F-16s against their Su-30s, and our F-16s were not permitted to use AIM-120 missiles. They could only use Sidewinders and guns, and could not use their in-cockpit data link to share radar information among the pilots. The U.S. was simulating Pakistani F-16s with Pak tactics and Pak equipment.
The fact that the Indians cleaned our clocks was a good thing.
Please. Those joint 'training' exercises with India and Israel are "show the flag" and let your little brother win a pickup game so that USAF and USN can get what they need out of the US Congress.
Would you really want to demonstrate to all how far behind the #3, #4, #5 airforces are behind the #1 and #2...
dvwjr
War games are games. Don't confuse them with reality.