As recently as yesterday (14Feb05) the newspaper U.S.A. Today, had an article on the clashes between the government of the U.S.A. and that of Mr. Chavez over the supply of spare parts for the Venezuelan AF’s F-16s.

As a result of this clash, one of the means used to apply pressure so his government will abide by the wishes of the U.S.A. is to withhold or to delay the delivery of spares for his country’s aircraft and other military and economic measures, intended to show the displeasure of Washington to his policies and politics.

As a result, the article states that Venezuela has agreed to purchase 100,000 automatic rifles and 40 military helicopters from Russia, and it is studying whether to buy Russian Mig-29s, to replace its F-16s.

Chavez stated that they are going to build Tucanos under license and will is near closing a deal for the purchasing of Brazilian-built military jets (AMXs?).

Threatening to buy weapons from a different supplier is nothing new in our countries. When the USA applied a similar embargo against Guatemala in 1953-54, Guatemala sought weapons from the Soviet Union, and this only helped to justify an invasion that deposed the legitimate government of Guatemala, and in the end caused a 36 year long civilian conflict that brought death and destruction, and has to this day, ruined the economy and welfare of most Guatemalans.

I doubt that the U.S.A. would invade Venezuela nowadays, so they resort to applying pressure like the delaying on the delivery of spares, but in the end, Venezuela makes enough money from the sale of their oil, and this will allow them to shop wherever they please.

Whether Mr. Chavez is a dictator or not, I cannot tell. If the example of Guatemala has shown us anything, it is that the U.S.A. will depose a “populist” government (accusing them in 1954 of being communists, nowadays the buzzword would be either narco-traffickers or terrorists) but the goal would be the same: To install in Venezuela, a government that is amenable to the interests of the U.S.A., without really caring for the people and their most basic needs.

Saludos,

Tulio

Venezuela is showing that Buying Brazilian strengthen Brazil and latin American as a whole, licensing the Tucan is a good start

I agree with you that battlefield management, AWACS, communication jamming etc had decisive influence in outcome of air combat in1982 war.
Israeli pilots have been precisely guided by AWACS a/c to Syrian fighters and other side did not have this capability.
Beacuse of that, nobody doubts that kill ratio was heavily on Israeli favor.
Take into account, also, that F-15 and F-16 were newly introduced fighters.

What is highly doubtful is kill ratio of 80:0 which is statistically impossible even in this, for Israelis, favorable conditions.

Please, read outcome of RED FLAG and AIMVAL/ACEVAL exercises between F-15s and F-5 Tigers in USA.
It is very interesting reading and is of paramount importance for any air combat researcher.

Firebar i also doubt the score but without any picture or pictures it is hard to know the veracity of the claims, and the russians claimed at least 10 Israeli jets were shot down but i`ve not see any picture

Why do you show a pic of an EAF MiG-23? :confused:

that was the model that is claimed shot down the F-4s and A-4s

Show me one from 1982. One. That’s all I’m asking.

I agree a picture will rest the case once for all but how we can get gun camera pictures from the syrians.

The proyect of a Mil plant in Mexico was cancelled. Some weeks ago, 2 FAM’s Mi-8 of crashed near Santa Lucia AB, their home base. The choppers were not acquired directly in Russia, so the air force had had many maintenance problems with those helicopters. In spite of that they are hard used. Moreover at the altitude of their base, (aprox 2000 meters over sea level) The hip just can carry more or less the same weight than the Bell-212!. The air force is studying replace it with american equipment.

The Navy’s Hips (Mi-17) are in better conditions, they were bought in Russia.

Do you have a press release to confirm that, up to what i know the mexican president Fox and it`s russian counterpart were discussing the building of a plants in Mexico and just recently Kamov was certified to operate in Mexico.

Fox and Putin signed proposal for a Mil plant in Mexico Kamov certifed to operate in Mexico

Deepspace

i can see clearly the MiG-21s but the HUD are too blur i can not see any MiG-23 do you have a less blur or clearer image

The Israeli air force claims 82 kills. 4 Before operation Artzav 19, 29 during the operation, a day after 30, and two days after, 19.
Wreckages? I don’t think many of those will survive the crash, and whatever survived was probably “cleaned” by the Syrians and Lebanonese.
It should be mentioned though that the Syrians have an F-4 wreckages in their war museum, but it was shot down in 1973. The Israeli air force and state usually does not display wreckages of eliminated enemy equipment. That’s a desperate custom of monarchy states that try to increase the moral of their people. Our airforce know what it did. It doesn’t feel a need to show off or justify itself. Only losers do it when they come with dubious gun camera shots.
I don’t know how many of the planes shot down were Floggers, but I assume the majority were older MiG-21s, which didn’t stand much chance against the Eagle and the Viper.

Erez i am sure Israel won the air battles, but i doubt the score, i think the true score have to have been something like 82:10 or 82:15.
i am sure the MiG-23 is not a match to the F-15 neither to the F-16 in terms of agility, i am sure the MiG-25 fell victim to the F-15s, when i have read Russian accounts, the Russian admit Israel won the air war and the MiG-23 had a very limited agility compared to the F-15s or F-16s, i consider Israel won`t admit losses if the Syrians do not show wreckages because war is also fight on the media, either side used the media but in the western world Israel has more credebility than the Russian or Syrians.

I am sure that Syria and Russia will try to exagerate the number of kills made by the Syrian MIGs and reduce the number of Migs lost but i consider both sides would do the same
I think it is not so unlikely the MiG-23s have shot down some F-16s, i think there is some room for such possibility, i feel it is likely the Syrian MiG-23s indeed shot down some F-16s