Fly-offs against Soviet aircraft during the Cold War usually came from defectors like Viktor Belenko (MiG-25), or Israeli handovers from their wars. These days, it's a bit easier.
Seven of Germany's Russian-designed MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters and their air-to-air missiles will be tested at Eglin Air Force base in Florida over the next couple months. They are scheduled to begin arriving May 9 with their German pilots and ground crews.
While here, the MiGs are expected to fly about 300 sorties including live-fire tests of AA-10 Alamo radar-homing and AA-11 Archer heat-seeking missiles. The weapons will be fired at target drones launched over the Gulf of Mexico from Tyndall Air Force Base, about 50 miles east of Eglin.
MiG pilots also will engage in mock dogfights with their counterparts from Eglin's 33rd Fighter Wing flying F-15C Eagles.
Both America and Germany are interested in these results, the Americans to assess the relative capability of its front-line fighters and the Germans because they will soon be introducing the Eurofighter Typhoon and want some 3-way performance benchmarks of their own.
The Germans haven't called their air force the Luftwaffe (literally, Air Force) since the end of WWII, for obvious reasons (it tended to upset the Americans and the other Europeans, whose civility the West German government desperately needed). The air arm of the West German (and now-unified German) armed forces is the Bundesluft (literally, Federal Air [Arm]).
Thanks for the tip. Will send the correction on to the source, who uses the term in their article.
sorry, but this is absolute nonsense.
it's FOR SURE, the german air force is named 'luftwaffe', and never in historie it was called 'bundesluft' [wich sounds very funny to me]
i can't imagine why somebody woul think somethink like this, but it's wrong.
so german air force is called LUFTWAFFE, and their webpage is http://www.luftwaffe.de
so, please send a new 'correction' to the source...
Haha, yeah, I've never known it as anything other than the Luftwaffe.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/ge-af.htm
"Luftwaffe" does appear to be the official name. In Peter's defense, "Bundesluft" does turn up Google hits.
Doesn't the USAF have its own fleet of Mig-29Cs that we bought from Moldovia? Last time I checked (which was a while ago), they were sitting in some airbase in Ohio.
As a fan of air power, I have been playing around with an idea for a while. Couldn't we invite some NATO wannabe (and in particular, I'm thinking of the Ukraine) to participate in one of the big annual exercises that the USAF runs in Nevada? The Ukkies would not only benefit from learning from the best, but they'd also earn brownie points from Washington. Meanwhile, our guys could learn what it's like to go up against PROPERLY flown Russian warbirds. I, for one, would pay to see an F-15 go up against a Su-27 in the hands of a reasonably competent pilot.
Hido!! Does anybody have any pictures or info about MiG-29s in USAF markings? please Help!!
My e-mail is:
tbgwnmhgb@hotmail.com
I think a German unit of MiG29's rotated through training at Holloman air base last year some time. And a few weeks ago, I coulda sworn I saw a couple of MiG 29's in an approach pattern at Nellis air base, but I couldn't make out markings.