Which is Better, the F-5E Tiger II or the MiG-21? (A forgotten African war answered the question)

War is Boring ^ | August 08, 2016 | TOM COOPER

[SunTzuWu]

Bookmark for later reading.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Bump

[Enlightened1]

Great post!

When it comes to fighter aircraft since World War II U.S. engineering is vastly superior to Russian or even Chinese copy garbage.

[OldNewYork]

Fascinating reading.

[MCF]

Thanks for posting.

[Celtic Conservative]

Soviet weapons engineering was based around simplicity, ease of repair and, above all quantity. They planned on fighting a war of attrition. Sure, they might lose a lot of equipment but at the volume they were making it they could absorb the loss. Unfortunately that also tells us what value the Soviets put on human life. People were as expendble as equipment and arms.

CC

[vladimir998]

Isn’t it strange how in the 1960s and 70s it looked like Africa was going somewhere, slowly modernizing, slowly becoming more sophisticated, slowly catching up with the modern world, and now. . . it seems in some ways to have fallen backward in many places? Somalia today is largely a wasteland. Ethiopia is struggling.

[NonValueAdded]

I think the closely related T-38 Talon is a beautiful aircraft. It was my dream to be flying one had I been born a few years earlier and the Vietnam war had not wound down, causing the USAF to empty the pilot pipeline. One is on display at KSC nearby the Space Mirror.

[sport]

mark

[super7man]

Me too.

[USNBandit]

Straight numbers out of the book the F-5E had better maneuverability after the first engaged turn. Later modifications of the F-5E included an Improved Handling Qualities mod with a flat "shark" nose and squared off leading edge extensions on the wing root. The F-5 also had automatic programming of the flaps in maneuvering flight.

Another big difference would be the overall quality of the manufacture and maintenance of the aircraft themselves. The Chinese got to the point where they called users of their Mig 21s to warn them of serious reliability issues.

Overall, the F-5 is like an MG of fighter planes. You won't see it winning an F1 race, but on a tight course it is lots of fun to fly and exceptionally reliable. I flew over 2000 hours in the F-5 and only had two emergencies. Neither one of them was anything that caused me to break a sweat.

[paddles]

Having fought both I’d prefer to face the MiG-21. The F-5 is very difficult to see head-on inside 5nm.

[Kommodor]

The F5/T38 was a very beautiful little plane. Nice to find out that it was also an effective one too.

[az_gila]

I think the closely related T-38 Talon is a beautiful aircraft. It was my dream to be flying one had I been born a few years earlier and the Vietnam war had not wound down, causing the USAF to empty the pilot pipeline. One is on display at KSC nearby the Space Mirror.

---

No problem, your dream can still come true, just send money...

http://www.thorntonaircraft.com/body/body.cfm?page_name=mil

[Azeem]

The Mig-28, of course.And now available on DCS.

[wardaddy]

That works with millions of fodder infantry

Not so well with a limited supply of trained skilled pilots

[USNBandit]

The local contract maintainers painted one of our F-5s in a robin’s egg blue cammo pattern and it was just plain invisible. I’m talking Klingon bird of prey, cloaking device on, inside of a mile. We had to go with a different pattern for safety.

[NonValueAdded]

Just wow!

[hawg-farmer - FR..October 1998]

Who made the SR-71 in the sixties and still holds records...HEH HEH