Название: USN F-4 Phantom II vs VPAF MiG-17/19: Vietnam 1965-73 (Duel) Автор: Peter E. Davies
Издательство: Osprey Publishing
Год: 2009
Страниц: 126
Язык: английский
Формат: epub, azw3, pdf (conv)
Размер: 10.15 MB
The Vietnam War placed unexpected demands upon American military forces and equipment, which had been focused on the probability of tactical nuclear warfare. The principal US naval fighter, the McDonnell F-4 Phantom, had originally been designed to defend the Fleet from air attack at long range. However, its tremendous power and bomb-carrying capacity made it an obvious candidate for the attack mission in Vietnam from 1965 onwards. Its opponent was the MiG-17, a direct descendant of the MiG-15, which had given USAF Sabre jets a hard fight in the Korean War. This book brings to life their dangerous duels and includes detailed cockpit views and other specially commissioned artwork to highlight the benefits and shortcomings of each plane type. It was in the skies over Vietnam that many of the techniques of air combat evolved as pilots learned how to use and to defeat supersonic fighters for the first time.
Although the Vietnam War appeared to most impartial observers as a conflict in which the world’s major superpower failed to suppress a poorly-equipped guerrilla army, the air war brought the most advanced defence technologies of both the USA and the USSR into direct conflict. It also served as a laboratory for many of the technical advances that have sustained the world’s defence equipment manufacturers since then.
For the US Navy, it was the first opportunity to combat-test its supersonic missilearmed F-4 Phantom II fighter. Also, the British-designed angled deck had revolutionised carrier operations and made large-scale “Alpha” strikes possible. However, the US Navy also learned that the recently discarded art of air-to-air dogfighting could not be replaced so easily, and as MiG killer John Nichols pointed out, “We Americans have a tendency to trust technology more than skill, but we periodically rediscover the truth”.
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