F-16 Replacement

[Ken White]

One of the books I have says that the success of MiG units varied on how many experienced pilots were in the units as they rotated through.

Books are often but not always correct. However, that book got that obvious truth correct...

The B-29s were driven from the daylight skies within range of the MiGs.

Deja vu all over again. Daylight bombing without local air superiority (there is and will be no air dominance...) is hazardous to Bombers. What a surprise.

Navy and Marine aviation were critical of course but they had nothing that could deal MiG-15 either. They were mostly light bombers.

The F9F did okay on the rare occasions it encountered Mig 15s. They were rare due to operational location and range (both) considerations, not to avoidance. Several former Panther pilots I talked to, former Brother in law and his friends, had scraps with Mig 15s. They acknowledge its technical superiority but claimed it could be beaten. They and other Navy / MC aircraft were mostly light bombers for a variety of reasons -- I would never suggest that the most significant was that they did a far better job at it and everyone in Korea knew that.

It also was a matter of location and range...

Mass can trump quality if the quality differential isn't too great.

Adequate Mass can trump a hugaceous amount, indeed any amount, of quality...

The F-84 got 10 MiGs and the MiGs got 18 F-84s.

Pilot quality, maybe? The F9Fs got 5 Migs and the Migs got no Panthers...

[Fuchs]

Pilot quality, maybe? The F9Fs got 5 Migs and the Migs got no Panthers...

Such very small data samples have only anecdotal, no real empirical value.

16 Fw 190A hunted 4 P-51's over the beaches of Normandy during Overlord and destroyed some of them. Now guess how representative this sample was...