Ed Rasimus wrote in message . ..
Give me an example of a conflict in which Russias finest product has
demonstrated superiority. The last time you might be able to find some
numbers that could give that impression, you'd be talking about the
Vietnam war, but there you'd be looking at ROE rather than capability.
Try Bekaa Valley stats for the same airplanes without the ROE.

The sort of conflict you refer to has never occurred. Russia's finest
was never in the hands of anyone but the Russians themselves (barring
a few defectors who brought their ride along). Even if they had been,
you Bekaa example probably doesn't hold up. I think that if the Arabs
had had the same technology as the Israelis, the Israelis still would
have walked all over them, although at a somewhat higher cost. It just
doesn't get much leaner and meaner than the IDF.

I do recall an article in Time magazine that had an interview with a
West German pilot, shortly after the two Germanies rejoined. They had
just been doing air combat trials between their Phantoms and East
German Fulcrums. Despite all the confidence they had in the
superiority of Western technology prior to this event, he was most
relieved that these combats were not in earnest, as he believed that
had they been, the Phantoms would have been swept out of the skies
easily.

I realise that by that time the Phantom was hardly the pick of the
bunch anymore, but the sense of superiority still prevailed, wrongly,
as these tests showed.

I hope that we will never really know the answer to which is better.

Rob