What is so difficult on my nickname?

It is
S C H O R S C H.

I am not comparing Iraqi and Iranian air force, I just try to put the often very optimistic view on Iranian air force into perspective. I don’t know why (I guess because of the Tomcat) people project incredibile things in their very limited inventory. The whole AD-system may have a chance of defending some areas with reasonable effectiveness for a time, but the air force alone is not able
– to generate enough sorties (air defence normally means lots of pointless patrolling, which is very demanding for a little fleet)
– having enough intelligence and surveillance
– missiles are a problem

When we just talk of air force (no land based SAM systems), the IraAF will have the problem that US has always superior numbers. They can attack with a warning time of maybe 10 to 15 minutes. IraAF can hardly sustain a CAP pattern of 2×2 aircraft. Phantom with external fuel stays in the air for 2, maybe 3 hours, so 2×2 patrol aircraft would generate 24/3×4 = 32 sorties a day. 4 aircraft on CAP can control only a limited area. So they have to rely on scramble missions, which requires lots of airfields.

Who do you think a Tomcat will go into battle? It can sneak into the battle using terrain and make a surprise attack (against RWR and AWACS hardened Super Hornets).

🙂 Schorsch then.

I get your point to an extent. However, look at it this way – with the awacs hardened hornets and (even, which I am not claiming in my case, F-15s present), an Iraqi MiG-25 was able to shoot down a hornet. Nobody here is claiming that the result of an airwar will in any way be balanced. The point is, the superbugs will give the IrAF a good chance of being able to shoot a few down.

From an aviation point of view, imagine if that happened. What would the old USN tomcat drivers say?

Scooter Libby is right, don’t under estimate the Super Hornet. Sure, it may be draggier and slower to accelerate than some of it’s contemporaries, but keep in mind.. in a real war, it’s not about raw performance alone, but the entire system as a whole. Which means you have to include the radar, the weapons carried, and counter measures, something which the Super Hornet has no shortage (or deficiencies) in. Not to mention that it will often operate in conjunction with other aircrafts to better maximize efficiency and aerial supremacy and minimalizing risks. Lets face it, whenever possible countries will avoid having 1 vs 1 engagements or something fair.. the goal is to make it unfair so you can win.

However I disagree with him in comparing Iran’s air force to Iraq. Just looking at the air to air record in the 8 years of the Iran-Iraq war, the results heavily favor the Iranian Air Force, giving them one of the highest kill ratios in modern aircombat, placing them behind Israel and the US.

As for the radar being compromised.. I wonder how much of the Zaslon they improved that would make it’s revelation moot as the US now has information on how to counter all levels of emissions radiating out of that radar..some would argue that it would require a totally new radar system. The spy that was executed wasn’t the only case. The CIA managed to get a good inspection of a MiG-31 in an ex Soviet state (no idea if it was a Russian MiG-31 flying there.. or if it belonged to an ex Soviet state, which could only be Kazakhstan). I will have to get back to you on the Su-27’s radar later.

I agree with you Berlesconi, particularly the second part of your post. The super hornet is a great system as a whole and I won’t take anything away from that. But if we are to believe the hogwash made out to hornet that it can do virtually every thing by itself, we might have a few fellows out there trying to do that and not having the F-15s to fly cover. In that case, the tomcats could pick when, where and how they will fight and we might see a few superbugs going down.

Overall I am not saying Iran will win an airwar – after 2 weeks their airforce would be all but vanquished. but if you see ppl like danrh and Schorch, they’d go to any extent to prove that the Iranian airforce equates with the Iraqi airforce, plain silly if you ask me. Problem with propaganda is sometimes your own ppl start believing it.

Little Green men with laser canons???? kekekek guess not

these days those are called Air Defence troops operating S-300s 🙂

on a tangent, the Iranian airforce has documented UFO cases.. check out their website. 😉