June 11, 2002 at 1:47 pm
These buggers are big ungainly aircraft and are not really intended to get into a “furball” with a smaller aircraft like a MiG-29 or an F-16. But what I want to know is if either of them got into a situation where a smaller fighter had been able to get close to them, could they handle themselves? What are the “G” limits of the ADV and Foxhound, could they turn with a smaller aircraft?
I know the ADV is fitted with the Mauser cannon, at least I believe it’s a Mauser, and the MiG is fitted with the standard GSh. Both can carry short range missiles such as Sidewinder or Atoll weapons. IF…and this is a big IF…such an incident occured, what chances would the pilot have?
Tornado ADV pilots train against each other and Hawk 100 aircraft at home as well as against smaller F-16s during the Canadian Excercises, forget what they are called. MiG-31 pilots do from time to time engage Su-27s and MiG-29 aircraft when excercises are held in Russia.
Does this then mean they have both adopted certain tactics to deal with the situation?
For a long time it was assumed the F-14 couldn’t dogfight either, this proved to be F-16 and F/A-18 pilot bantha…so I assume the crews of these giant ungainly looking things can really “mix it up”.
Last one, what about the J-8IIID. Has this version of the J-8 been refined so that it stands more of a chance against an F-16/15???