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The First Contractor-Operated F-16 Aggressor Jets Are Heading To North America

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The first F-16 jet fighters to be flown by a private contractor offering red air adversary support are on their way to North America. It was confirmed today that a batch of the former Israeli Air Force jets was being transported from Israel to North America aboard a Ukrainian-registered An-124 cargo aircraft. Photos show at least three F-16s, with wings and tail surfaces removed, waiting to be loaded on the aircraft, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that four F-16s are being delivered. Once… (www.thedrive.com) More...

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tylerc873
Tyler Cippen 2
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 2
So American fighter pilots are going to be flying agaisnt US built fighters that do not fly like former Soviet block type fighters? Who thought that would be a good way to train?
Hmmm.
iais513
iais513 2
You have never researched the real Top Gun school? Or Red Flag? Here: https://www.deviantart.com/bagera3005/art/McDonnell-Douglas-F-15-Eagle-65th-Aggressor-269488031 Or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUrZyeefEcs or https://www.flickr.com/photos/14246866@N05/2891858430 Finally: https://theaviationist.com/2019/11/17/first-look-at-the-new-wraith-aggressor-f-16-in-action-at-nellis-afb-thrills-crowds/

The Idea of "American fighter pilots are going to be flying against US built fighters that do not fly like former Soviet block type fighters" has been going on for over 40 years. And they have used other aircraft besides LearJets, A-4s and F-5s. And they have used everything from F-15s, F-18s, F-16s etc... Nothing new.

Research it.
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 1
I am fully aware of what has been used in the past, and how long contractors been flying against military pilots. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, it should be easier to pick up used Soviet Bloc aircraft from countries once behind it.
redmdz
Mike Ziemann 1
iais513 is spot on. Again, the OVERWHELMING amount of "Red Air" that we train against are 4th Generation, US built fighters. With the fall of the Iron Curtain...??? That was THIRTY TWO years ago now. Yeah, there are probably plenty of 35+ year old 2nd and 3rd generation Soviet fighters we could buy. Utterly worthless. Maybe a fair number of 4th Gen MiG-29s, but they would still be of limited training value. We definitely could never acquire enough (or ANY) Flankers, J-10s, J-20s, or Su-57s to put together an actual adversary squadron to train against. So the best you could possibly realistically hope to do is take a good quality 4th Gen platform (like an F-16) and then do your absolute best to replicate the tactics and capabilities of the adversary as best you can with what you can ACTUALLY procure and operate.
tylerc873
Tyler Cippen 1
tylerc873
Tyler Cippen 1
dis guy iz smart
tylerc873
Tyler Cippen 1
whiteknight77 fo president 2024
redmdz
Mike Ziemann 0
I know. I don't know why Russia and China don't just sell us their best fighter planes so we can get better practice learning to defeat them! Seriously!?! Do you instead think the CIA can secretly just acquire like a few hundred enemy aircraft instead?

You obviously don't have any idea how "Red Air" actually works, or how threat replication is done. With a few VERY limited (and covert) exceptions, it is pretty much ALWAYS done with "friendly" aircraft because those are pretty much the only kind of aircraft you can procure.
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 3
I most certainly do know how it works. A-4s and F-5s have been used in the past. One company used Lear jets for such. They moved to using 4 different aircraft, inluding an L-39, F1 Mirage, F1 KFIR and a MK-Hawker Hunter.

We have aquired Soviet-bloc era aircraft as well over the years and are in active use. A PM article has an article about it even.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a34427612/air-force-secret-soviet-fighter-jets-inside-story/

tylerc873
Tyler Cippen 1
YAY!
















































this guy is very very smart

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