What did you hear/learn about it? And how did you counter it?

In those times there were a political(deputy)-officer in every fighter squadrons in HuAF.
Usually they went for a briefing to the Russians.
On one of these events, the Soviet AF intell-guy started to talk:
” Thanks to our Czechoslovak comrades, now we have an important info(about the Combat Tree…they did not use this name of the equipment, just a review, how it works)…

On these photos, you can see a same event in 1978 at the Tököl based Soviet 515.iap., which was equipped with MiG-21SMT -21ST at the time:

Countermeasures: “martinez” answered partly, more details in my coming book;)

Robert, what happened to your Mig-21 book? thanks

On the way….publish at late October.
A bit late – all publishers crying about the world financial crisis….
It gave me the chance, to fit in an additional chapter – I found some guys, who were trained in Mari AB, and took photos also.;)

Do you have any infos, when reached the information the Czechoslovak AF about the “Combat Tree” equipment of the Phantoms ?

I am fairly sure they were there to interview agents and instruct them on intelligence they wanted to gather.

Maybe…
They went to the local embassy to do those “interviews”…not too risky, travelling as diplomats.

Sorry Steve,
From my viewpoint it is an urban-legend only from the Constant Peg pilots, that you can not check(I can not check too).
Just comment….

I know dozens of WP pilots, who were trained in the Sovietunion(late 70s early 80s) and later went to AF Academys to the US and to NATO.
They met with endless questions(from classmates and intel-guys) about the Cold-War era.
Also I was there at many DACT, when NATO fighters arrived to fly against the MiG-29, “guest-flys” in MiG-21UM -23UM….the same questions from them….
And the same surprised faces everywhere;)

Obviously the West was out of picture from some aspects even in the late 90s.
(I do not want to say anything like who was the better trained, informed etc. – both sides were well informed – I respect the pilots at both sides and they respect each others).
When they talk about the WPs readiness-system, tactic, exercise-500-series, operations from unprepared fields….it was obvious after a short time, the NATO guys was a bit out of picture or had wrong infos in details.

For me, the way – how the Constant Peg went – fits very well to this “picture”.

Remember – for example, how many operational photos are in the US mil-archives of the Soviet AF MiG-21s in 16.VA in GDR ?
They had the first in 1987 – in the MiG-29 era !
(I am talking about good photos on airfields with useful details on, not the poor-quality landing shots and TASS,APN or Novosty photos that the Soviets published…and you can find on the Net nowadays)
The Intel-guys of the NATO had really hard-times pre 1990.

“Semi-offtopic”, few pics from my archive, I hope you will enjoy:
http://www.scramble.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=48711&hilit=soviet
sainz = RobertS;)

p.s.; Sorry, I have very basic English.

No, this was at the height of the Cold War.

Hmmm…you say few of the Constant Peg pilots went to WP countries pre 1990.
(or I misunderstood something)
They could observate(from afar) WP combat planes when landing and takeoff, made dust-clouds at grassy airstrips, took bad-quality photos etc….

I have doubts.
NATO had professionals for this duty.
Why take this kind of risk with their ” guys had the best stick and rudder skills in the Air Force ” ?

Go on martinez !

This is the professional reply….

Read properly, it was about the MiG-23s built and operated from 1969 till June 1972, when A.V. Fedotov piloted the first example of the new M as coming main model!
The first examples observed in East Germany in 1973 were still limited to K-13 AAMs. 😉

Something was observed in Germany…..
Really funny to read the reports from the observer teams from the early 70s in Germany.
Just a sample:
They seen(and took a photo) of a landing MiG-21 with R-3R missile.
They wrote a bulletin – Fishbed with guided air-to-ground missile !
Just 2 more years, and the West realized – ooops, it is a radar guided air-to-air missile:)

But I respect, they had real challenge compare to a Soviet “diplomat” at the fence of Lakenheath AB with a Nikon in hands;)

See OKB MiG about that.

Hmmm…a book…
There are no facts about the -23MS operations in the VVS in that book.
As in the other English(or Russian) publications.
Sorry, I thought – your statement based on facts > photos, dates, unit-numbers, personal reports…

The MiG-23MS was not operational in the Soviet air-defence or frontal aviation.

hey pesho!

im guessing the soviet mig-23MS pilot you know was part of the training group based at Tokmok/Tokmak, in now Kyrgyzstan?

From what ive read it seems the soviets only operated a handful of the type for training foreign 23MS operators?

Or Lugovoye or a few other airbases where VVS used -23MS also….