Yama – What is your definition of ‘very well’? A KDR of less than parity is not good in my book and that record doesn’t just include MiG-17 vs F-4, it includes many fighter-bomber shootdowns too. The F-8 would have made a better argument at 19:3 in Vietnam.
Against the F-4, you can pick out the result from here. I make it 37-9 in favour of the F-4.
https://web.archive.org/web/20121031050356/http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?180731-Modern-fighter-combat-records&p=6331450&viewfull=1#post6331450
For me, where Sprey’s theory falls down is simply the number of missile kills and the volume of air space that these can be effective within. The early AIM-7 was terrible and perhaps some of the pilots using them weren’t too great either, but they still scored 60+ kills (50 for USAF, 10 for USN, USMC?) in Vietnam. Now, if you don’t have a radar and similar missiles, how do you counter that? It’s like an artillery battle where one side’s artillery has a range of 40km and the other side’s 10km or less. It might not be accurate but if they fire enough rounds they’ll get lucky eventually.
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