What makes the best air crews and why??? Per Nation I Guess…

Time and again I hear this whole “combat experience” thing which gets played around a lot, but I thin thats a very generalised and vague comment. For example, you could have flown in a war, actually FOUGHT in a war or been under enemy fire – all potentially hairy situations. Then you have those who (at the other end of the spectrum) have been POW’s, friendly-fire culprits, ejectees etc.

Specifically, I want to know what makes the best overall standard for a male and female young force (age 26-35) of air crews who have not fought in actual combat, but who are provided with the best mental preparation and physical training and simulation. I mean – not every pilot knows what its like to be breaking +8G’s and shooting flares over missile trails. What’s going to stop them, aside from individual tolerances, from making bad decisions or indecision at very critical moments, aside from the obvious selection procedures.

I wasn’t really aiming to bring this discussion into the area of comparing nations against each other, partly because each air force and each person is different, but more I want to see who has the best trends, the best “experience” and the best results (regardless of technology) in human situations.

I know the Israeli camp like to say that the IDFAF has had plenty of combat experience over recent years – but do they keep the veterans in the air, or on the ground behind desks??? Likewise, I’m getting sick and fed up of USAF and USN documentaries showing off ********-loads of technology and absolutely nothing about the crews. I am certain that tech has not brought us (or rather, them) to the simplicity of point, shoot, go home missions.

The Chinese pilot who crashed his J-8 Finback into that US Orion aircraft was, I think supposed to have been some sort of senior or experienced pilot – yet blatantly he made a stupid mistake that would have been easily avoided if he had not been enforcing PLAAF ideology regarding interception of enemy ELINT. ie – get close and intimidate.

I don’t want to over-analyse attrition numbers, but in most cases you can file the statistics yourself after each investigation as they get posted. Is this evidence to say an Air Force has got problems. For example, India and its rapidly-dissapearing Mig-21 fleet which has lost scores of aircraft in recent accidents.