Finnish Mig 21 Tactics
JDupre5762
As Finland is one of the few Western nations to operate the Mig 21 I wonder
what their experience with it was like?
Did Finland adopt the same type of GCI tactics that were exported with Mig 21's
to Egypt and Vietnam or did they develop their on tactical doctrine and only
buy the hardware?
What do Finnish pilots think of the 21 as a combat aircraft?
How did it compare to the Draken?
Is it still viable versus the F-18?
Did Finnish pilots have any experience in mock dogfighting with NATO or Warsaw
Pact Air Forces? Do they have any opinion of the Mig 21 versus F-104 or F-4?
Regards,
John Dupre'
Cen Blackwell
Best thing to do with a MiG-21 is to run away :)
Cheers, cen.
Check six!
tuomainen
> What do Finnish pilots think of the 21 as a combat aircraft?
It was fast and very agile considering age of the aircraft.
> How did it compare to the Draken?
You beat draken in close combat quite easily if pilots are equally skilled,
but radar is bit inferior when compared to Drakens.
> Is it still viable versus the F-18?
Not in any other way than max speed at high altitudes.
Hawk trainer is great dog fighter (believe it or not) and you could give a
good challenge with MiG-21 to Hawk.
> Did Finnish pilots have any experience in mock dogfighting with NATO or
Warsaw
> Pact Air Forces? Do they have any opinion of the Mig 21 versus F-104 or
F-4?
As you must know MiG-21 was very good aircraft. F-104 i think is best
know'n as a bad example of aerodynamics though fast but no match in dog
fight. F-4 is almost identical to draken in agility but avionics in later
models were ofcourse generation ahead as is radar. So if you can use BWR
(indentification???) F-4 probably would win first prize but dog fight would
be quite difficult.
> Regards,
>
> John Dupre'
Rgds
Aki Heikkinen
Andy
Hello....
Mig 21 is no longer in service of Finnish air force. Mig 21 and Mig 21bis
were so old types that they did not have signifigant role in modern
dogfighting. However Mig 21 was maybe the best fighter in Finnish air force
so far... As you may know Finland is nowadays operating with F-18 Hornet.
Have a nice day......
Yama
JDupre5762 wrote:
> <snip>
> What do Finnish pilots think of the 21 as a combat aircraft?
> How did it compare to the Draken?
This sort of information is very hard to get, because FAF, as whole
Finnish military, is very secretive institution. Even though MiG is
retired from service, Draken isn't. Very little has been released about
FAF experiences about both planes.
However, in 1972 HLeLv 11 briefly operated MiG's, newly arrived Drakens
and soon-to-be-retired Gnats. Worn, ageing Gnats easily beat both
Drakens and MiGs in turnfights.
Jarmo Lindberg
JDupre5762 wrote:
> As Finland is one of the few Western nations to operate the Mig 21 I wonder
> what their experience with it was like?
Finnish Air Force ceased MiG-21 operations on the 7th of March 1998. There have
been no MiG flights after that date and all MiGs are being scrapped. See:-
http://www.sci.fi/~fta/feature.htm
- http://www.sci.fi/~fta/jyrki.htm
> Did Finland adopt the same type of GCI tactics that were exported with Mig 21's
> to Egypt and Vietnam or did they develop their on tactical doctrine and only
> buy the hardware?
We developed our own.
> What do Finnish pilots think of the 21 as a combat aircraft?
Fast and agile.
> How did it compare to the Draken?
Read the previous answer.
> Is it still viable versus the F-18?
No, but that doesn't matter since we don't operate them any more :-)
> Did Finnish pilots have any experience in mock dogfighting with NATO or Warsaw
> Pact Air Forces?
No, there were no combined exercises. Finns trained only in Finland.
> Do they have any opinion of the Mig 21 versus F-104 or F-4?
Hard to say since we have never trained with them.
Jarmo Lindberg
http://www.mil.fi/ftrsqn21/CO.htm
http://www.sci.fi/~fta/migflt-1.htm
--
Jarmo Lindberg
Fighter Squadron 21: http://www.mil.fi/ftrsqn21/
Fighter Tactics Academy: http://www.sci.fi/~fta/welcome.htm