J-35 Draken VS Mig-21 Fishbed

There is a very heated discussion going on one of the treads 🙂 , it’s who would have won if there had been an major outbreak of hostiles in the 80’s in Central Europe.

I think that it’s more or less impossible to determine a winner of such a war.

In the air it would have been a close fight.

On the sea (shipping lanes, GUIK gap and so on.) my personal opinion is that NATO would have the upper hand. But that is my personal opinion.

On land, the Warsaw pact had a big advantage in Tanks, ifv’s, apc’s and artillery. I there had been a war in say 1982, the Warsaw pack would have won the land war with no major problems, but if the war had started in the middle or late 80’s I think that they would have been more of a fight, this is to do with the upgrade of NATO hardware starting in around 1982-83.

But this is not a discussion about a war in the CENTCOM area but of Northern Europe.

If there had been a war in Europe in the 1980’s Sweden and its Neutral neighbor Finland would most likely had been involved one way or another. The soviets needed to get airbases in Norway and the shortest route is true Finland and Sweden.

During the early part of the 80’s the mainstay Interceptor in Swedish service would have been the J-35 Draken. Finland also had a small number of Drakens mixed with Mig-21’s

Around 1984-1985 the main interceptor work would have been taken over by JA-37 Viggen.

So my question is how J-35 Draken would have faired against the Mig-21 and Mig-23, but mainly the Mig-21.

I think that given the close proximity to the Baltic countries, Poland, Kaliningrad enclave and former East Germany, the main fighter that Sweden would have been up against would have been the MIG-21, I know that there was a number of Mig-23/29 and Su-27 regiments (plus naval resources in both the Murmansk area and the Baltic countries) but i think that those would most likley have been used on the main European front.

Most if not all Swedish draken units would have been armed with a combination of AIM-9P and the IR Version Hughes HM 58 Falcon (more or less an AIM-4C with AIM-4D seeker) and SAR Version Hughes HM 55 Falcon (AIM-26B) and equipped with the Hughes S-71N (AN/AAR-4) IR-detectors and

The Draken also has built in 2 x 30 mm Aden guns with 150 rounds each.