On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 23:03:52 -0500, "Paul F Austin"
wrote:


"Brian" wrote

"Ed Rasimus" wrote
I also learned to fly fighters from brits among pilots from
many other nationalities, and i feel that they were the weakest of all
the europeans.

Whose better among Euros? While a lot of the countries have some good
drivers in specialties, the RAF seems to have the highest consistency
across the tactical spectrum. Germans are good, Italians are pretty
good, Danes and Norwegians are pretty good, French will tell you they
are great, Spanish have some good ones...

I'm thinking the Swedes might have something to add in. The Gripen is a
pretty killer plane and leverages a lot of the "net-centric" type tools.
The
Viggen is no slouch though it's missiles aren't all that great. They've
got
a 4th Generation plane out and they did it reasonably quick (compared to
the
Typhoon and F-22). In

From what I've read, the Swedes have decades more "net-centric" operations
experience than the rest of the world. Viggens and Drakens before them were
fully integrated into the Swedish ADGE. Of course that's no more than F-102s
did in the fifties but the Drakens and Viggens also had-between-aircraft
data links that provided automatic cross-linked sensor and aircraft status
information.



Let's not forget the Mig-31 in there either.