drmeson
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Ethiopia's Su-27SK faced off in air-to-air combat against Eritrean Mig-29A's in 1999.
And the Flankers won the battle hands down. Eritrea was impressed enough to buy some examples of their own from Russia after the war.
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How Flankers fought Fulcrums in the skies over Africa
Jan 14 2022
Igor Rozin
https://www.rbth.com/history/334639...m/history/334639-how-flankers-fought-fulcrums
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I'm of the opinion Iran should ditch its Mig-29 (along with the other obsolete fighters you regularly mention) as soon as a viable replacement becomes available. To my knowledge there's no example of an impressive use of the type in war. It seems the only thing interesting about IRIAF's Fulcrums are their engines.
Iran never bought fighter jets from France, the Mirage F-1's were received from Iraq as part of the package Saddam asked Iran to shelter during the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf war (and never got back).
Actually, Flankers have a long history of mixed aerial records.
-SU-35S and SU-30SM of Ru-AF are constantly operating in Ukrainian airspace. How many times they have even managed to break in deep into the contested territory? One can argue thats not the Russian plan from the beginning but these aircraft are constantly getting lost to SAMs which shows that they are deployed to penetrate the enemy airspace but are failing to do so. So far both sides have lost 18 Flankers during the mission (one I think was lost to bombing on ground).
- In Syria, SU-35S and SU-30SM both have on multiple occasions failed to shoot down Israeli F-16i and F-35 that came in Syria to attack T-4 and other targets. Also, during the Turkish SDF conflict, they chased Turk F-16 Block 30/40 but failed to shoot them, Russian media maintained the word "chased and forced them to leave". That's BS, you are in a war theatre, you dont force someone, you shoot them or they shoot you back.
-Indian SU-30MKs were attacked by Pakistan AF's F-16 Block C/D with BVR and e-warfare Jamming and Sukhois just retreated from the battle scene which resulted into Indian MIG-21 and Helicopters shot down and Indian territory getting bombed.
I am not against Flankers, to me they are like modern-day F-4E/Ds. Heavy, large RCS, high maintenance fighters. Maneuverable (Phantom was not), powerful engines and all but with weak electronics compared to western combat suites. Without proper TOT IRIAF should stay away from this aircraft. Its highly expensive and we don't need their attack capabilities as IRIAF responsibility is to defend Iranian skies in conjunction with Air defense. High numbers of MLUed MIG-29M/SMT or MIG-35E (TOT) should be on the radar of IRIAF. Much cheaper, infrastructure exists in Iran.
I'm of the opinion Iran should ditch its Mig-29 (along with the other obsolete fighters you regularly mention) as soon as a viable replacement becomes available. To my knowledge there's no example of an impressive use of the type in war. It seems the only thing interesting about IRIAF's Fulcrums are their engines.
IRIAF will not ditch its MIG-29 9.12 but they will get grounded in a few years because their airframes need MLU now and their radar and avionics are at best MIG-23ML levels. They came with 9.12 RPKL-29 N019 radar which can barely track a Kowsar-I sized fighter at 45-60 KM, they lack a modern e-warfare suit for ECM, and have no jammers. The package included SPO-15 RWR of MIG-23ML (worst Russian RWR ever) but some argue IRIAF ones lack that as well. They do not have ARH BVR R-77E either and rather rely upon R-27ER1 which is SARH so they cant just shoot and run away using their fast dash speeds. Practically speaking, as menacing as they look, they are almost on verge of being irrelevant in modern combat with no e-warfare suite, no datalink, no good radar. This is a Russian plane so IRIAF won't get it touched by HESA otherwise they can get the airframes MLUed inside HESA while IEI can put its own radar + avionics package on them (Kowsar-I/II like) to get them to MIG-29M/SMT levels.