MIG 21 VS F4 Phantom

F4 Phantom Books:

MIG 21 Books:

It's pretty amazing F4's initially had no air to air guns loaded on their planes. Equipped only with air to air missiles (often times failed) and due to number of air to air casualties the TOP GUN program was introduced as well as re introducing the air to air gun on modern fighters.

[zerotwosupremacy]

"The missile knows where it is, because it knows where it isn´t"

[h]

1:43 ''Damn we're out of budget for the last explosion...'' -''Don't worry guys, I have an idea!''

[Arrow_]

What should really happen is that the Dogfights should have a reboot with this kind of CGI. This rocks.

[conroypaw]

During this era, AIM-9 Sidewinders did not give a high pitch tone for a missile lock. It growled.

[Collateral]

Turns out the guns weren’t the problem with the f 4s. Main problem was that there missiles were not properly maintained. This was one of the main reasons the navy was able to actually improve there kill to death ratio from 3 to 1 to 13 to 1. Also the top gun program all went together to create a more effective force.

[shuhratkessikbayev]

I remember this one time, at a model kit hobby store, this Vietnam pilot veteran told me as I was purchasing the MiG-21 1:72 scale, that when it came down to these dogfights, MiG pilots would fly at a lower altitude, because they knew the danger of fighting the F4, so when it came down to it, the pilots would never engage F4's but the Air Force would always talk about sending in a different kind of aircraft they knew, the Vietnamese WOULD engage, it was in a sense a mind game for them, they tricked the enemy but never sent the plane, so when the MiG's hear this particular plane was on it's way, they would increase altitude and instead of the expected plane they would be forced to engage the F4's
Another story he told me was while he was posted in barracks, because he was ordered to, one of his mates took control of his helicopter, and on a miss his helicopter was shot down by a MiG-21 and told me that that engagement would go down in history as the first helicopter to be shot down by an jet.

[unknownguy]

In the future






War thunder veteran talks about his gameplays in Jet fighters.

[OUTLAW-]

F-4 couldnt out turn the 21, but it could out climb it easily, thats why it almost always fought it in the vertical. You use your strengths, and force them into your type of fight.

[shawnkinser]

The F4 was not a true stand alone fighter but more of a fighter/bomber

[TheMemeDynamics]

1:36
"It was the longest 9 minutes I ever had"
Sounds like an war hero telling stories to their kids.

[giannissergis]

I'm from Greece and we still have Phantoms in use.

[safemode]

The F-4 Phantom was retired from Japan Self Defense Air Force in 2019. Protected the sky in Japan for many years. Thank you.

[murrymirage]

MIG 21 in India is called the MIG Bison and it's a whole other beast. Radar system tracks 8 targets engage up to 4 with semi active and active homing air to air, improved engine Mach 2.0+, modern advanced avionics, HMD, Tactical Data Links, RWR & EW capabilities, improved WVR combat, added BVR capabilities, all this in addition with it's well known raw capabilities.

[adipop]

Belive or not Romania still have about 36 mig 21 ( from about 100 upgade with israeli Elbit )with modern avionics similar with F16 in use they call mig 21 Lancer

[vipervenom]

:40 he just dumped about all the ammo that 21 has in that burst lol

[МаксимКнязев-кк]

My grandfather was a pilot for a MiG. In Korea. 5 downed fighters and one bomber.

[РоманМихалыч-тм]

четверо на одного, по американским меркам это равно "один на один". Исход боя 50 на 50!

[AndriiNikolaiev]

Я техник самолета Миг-21ПФМ старший лейтенант, служил в ВВС СССР в 1984 - 1986 годы. Воинская часть 21513. Этот истребитель не имел пушки. Я это хорошо знаю. Иногда вешали подвесную пушку, но это очень и очень редко. На мой истребитель не вешали никогда. Пушка появилась на поздних модификациях, которые вряд ли воевали во Вьетнаме. Есть подозрение, что рассказчик любит приукрасить. Если ему это нравится, то не будем ему мешать.

[claypidgeon]

Isn’t it fascinating how the most advanced forms of warfare, the most raw expressions of mankind’s sheer power, have a way of reminding us of how powerless we really are?

[MCF]

Its not really “amazing” that the F-4 didnt have a gun at first. And even though i would always rather have a gun than not, they havent really been needed for air to air combat from when the phantom was introduced. The low missile hit rates in vietnam were mainly from bad missiles (early AIM-4 falcons as an example), the missiles being fired outside of their envelopes (like sidewinders being fired head on when at the time they could only lock from the rear aspect. But this was primarily dealt with by red flag and top gun), and from pilots refusing to take the time to replace unused missiles (whether this be from pressure from higher-ups or just themselves.) which at the time needed to have maintinence done on them after every flight to make sure any fragile components hadnt broken on the flight.