FACT: The U.S. Air Force Flew Dozens of Captured Russian Fighter Jets

[rangerrebew]

February 6, 2019

FACT: The U.S. Air Force Flew Dozens of Captured Russian Fighter Jets

From 1978 to 1988, a secret U.S. Air Force unit flew captured Russian MiG fighters in a dangerous effort to teach American pilots how to defeat the planes in combat.

by David Axe 

From 1978 to 1988, a secret U.S. Air Force unit flew captured Russian MiG fighters in a dangerous effort to teach American pilots how to defeat the planes in combat.

The 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron, also known by its code name "Constant Peg," flew 15,000 sorties and trained 6,000 U.S. pilots, according to a new Air Force documentary.

Similar efforts continue today under different auspices.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/fact-us-air-force-flew-dozens-captured-russian-fighter-jets-43522

[sneakypete]

If this was supposed to have been a secret,it was the worse-kept secret in history. Even I knew about it,and I was never in the USAF.

BTW,does anyone have any idea why this was supposed to have been so dangerous?

[rangerrebew]

Maybe the migs were such junk, the pilot risked his life every time he went up.

[sneakypete]

Maybe the migs were such junk, the pilot risked his life every time he went up.

@rangerbrew

Naw,the Migs were of excellent design  because most of their design was stolen from the west to start with. Their real shortcomings were the crap manufacturing of the Soviet system,where 100 crap items a day from a production worker were to be rewarded above 20 excellent ones.

Once the captured Migs were in US hands any crap parts could be either reproduced using quality materials and workmanship,or just replaced with US units.

Anybody that thinks the USAF is going to send their pilots up to play tag with unreliable equipment doesn't know much about jet pilots or the USAF.

The truth is training against these captured Migs gave the US fighter pilots a tremendous advantage when going into combat against them because they not only KNEW the performance level the Migs could obtain,they had practiced defeating their defenses and getting "hits" on them. Any Soviet or Com Block pilots they went up against were trying to learn how to fight the US fighters in real fights.

Now you know why the Soviets just quit sending Soviet fighters up against US fighters in both Korea and VN. They did it early in the war using Russian pilots,but after losing too many of their top fighter pilots they started sending half-trained NVN pilots up against them. As you can guess,that didn't last very long because they started running out of airplanes to send up.