No offense, but your article format isn't easy to read. And I think you're
off with your AMRAAM #s. I believe the totals stand closer to at least 6
rather than 4 (2 F16 Iraq, 2 F16 Bosnia, 2 F15 Bosnia). And I'm not sure
what your general points are.

"The most important lesson learned were based on the fact that the US
fighters could react quickly to threatening situations, they were very
difficult to see or hit, and the pilots could reverse a bad situation
rapidly without making themselves more vulnerable to random events"

More to the point, could you simply say they had better A-A training? I
don't understand the difficult to see bit, given that Western fighters are
typically larger. The lesson that experience counts, in combat or anything
else, it hardly new. And it was learned in Linebacker via Top Gun (and FWS
later) if it was forgotten.

"The US Navy had terrible luck with the Sparrow missile, the USAF and
Israeli Air Force had better, primarily due to land based operations with
more time and space for maintenance and checkout. The Navy relied heavily on
Sidewinder IR missiles, the USAF had to be embarrassed into it."

I'm not sure where you got these ideas. The USAF had such success with the
Sparrow because a hand-picked unit of F-15 fighters, with the best available
NCTR technology (unavailable to the Navy) were given the cherry-picked
opportunities to pursue A-A BVR engagements. An F-14 pilot is quoted as
commenting that the AIM-7 is a magic bullet once it gets off the rails. How
many BVR engagements has the USN had? One (by a panicky RIO)? And the USAF
was embarrased into adopting the Sidewinder? Professionally, Eagle Drivers
are embarrased to be forced into a dogfight (vs. smacking BVR), but I've
never heard one be embarrased by the AIM-9 unless they were on the receiving
end of one in training!

TV