June 4, 2003 at 1:35 pm
Okay, Cold War is lond gone and we all live in peace and harmony, more or less. 🙂 But one thing I am just curious about is what Air Force outside of the Soviet Union itself posed the greatest threat to NATO?
Being Bulgarian I have family who still live and work in Bulgaria (surprise surprise). An uncle of mine serves as an aircraft technican servicing Mil types in the field. This is how I came into being an aircraft nut. 🙂
But was Bulgaria ever top dog amongst the Warsaw Pact forces? Having to deal with Greece, Turkey and possibly Cyprus based British forces or Yugoslavian forces deciding to support NATO I’d imagine Bulgarian pilots were well trained. From what I read about a recent British visit the RAF were impressed with the quality given low flying hours.
No one trusted Hungary – even today my uncle
is weary of Hungarians, but did this reflect in their training?
Romania was another less than smiled on nation, did the Soviets eye them with caution?
Czechoslovakia and Poland were both well equipped to confront the main NATO thrust , were they well trained too?
Finallly East Germany, being smack bang on the front line I guess these guys were pretty good but I have heard many ugly things about pilot quality. Is this true?
🙂