The MIG-29 might still be the best dogfighting airplane in the world, or close to it. One expert I talked to said that if you matched a MIG-29 against an F-14 in a dogfight, the best pilot would win.
But dogfighting is not expected to be a major issue in any future wars. If we went to war with North Korea or Iran, their MIG-29s would be lucky to get off the ground.
The biggest weakness of the MIG-29 is its range. It can't go as far as American planes on one tank of fuel.
The Raptor would see them before they saw the Raptor. The only thing that would keep the Russians in competition would be Raptors having to return home to rearm.
Aren't Mig and Sukhoi two different companies.
I've always been curious why anybody would buy the Saabs or whatever it is the French produce given that the concensus seems to be the two best products are Russian and American and if we don't sell it they will.
That's an appropriate comparison, a MIG 29 against an out of service US Navy aircraft...
That's pretty much always been the case. Post WWII, Chuck Yeager participated in a number of mock combat flyoffs between allied fighters and captured enemy fighters piloted by Americans. He said regardless of plane, the better pilot usually won. He particupated in similar Korean War era trials using MIG's and the results were the same.
The early Israeli Air Force experience was the same. Flying ME-109's, they swept the skies clear of Egyptian piloted Spitfires.
In his book, Eric Hartmann described an encounter very late in the war betwen he and about 8 American P-51's. Because Hartmann flew over the Eastern Front, his ME-109 wasn't supercharged. Anyway, after 45 minutes of twisting and turning, his ME-109 ran out of fuel and he had to bail out. One outstanding pilot in an outclassed airplane was able to successfully evade 8 P-51's.
The initial Mig-29s had other weaknesses-a bad radar,unreliable & very smoky engines & ofcourse poor range.It's very similar to the F-18 Hornet in it's range performance given both belong to the lighter twin engined category.Most people say that close-in,the Mig-29 would have an advantage against the larger F-15.But things would be more equal against an agile F-16.
Newer Mig-29 models like the Mig-29K & Mig-35 have (on paper) much better characteristics like improved radar,larger internal fuel tanks & better engines & radar.