Russian pilots
Images are sometimes not shown due to bandwidth/network limitations. Refreshing the page usually helps.
You are currently reading a thread in /k/ - Weapons
You are currently reading a thread in /k/ - Weapons
Can any comparison be drawn when pitting Russian pilots against Western pilots?
Just how capable are pilots within the RuAF, is their training inferior to or on par with western air forces?
>>29154414
It's really hard to imagine Russian pilots getting the sort of realistic combat training that American pilots get at Red Flag events.
>>29154414
In my opinion, the best indication we have to compare Russian pilots to American ones is by looking at how they trained their respective puppet states, because there hasn't really been a situation pitting Russian pilots against American pilots (or really any enemy at all) since Korea.
Russian air doctrine was defensively oriented for most of the Cold War, so training tended to revolve around ground-controlled intercept. There appears to have been minimal air combat manuevering training, and generally pilots seemed very reliant on ground control. In the worst cases (Bekaa Valley 1982, for example), that meant the pilots were completely unprepared in the event that they had to operate independently. I'd expect that this has changed a bit given the longer range of the Flanker series and the pretty impressive avionics suite on the MiG-31, but I'm guessing that some element of the old defensive doctrine remains, especially with the current state of the VVS.
American doctrine, on the other hand, seems to emphasize more proactive use of air power and more independent operation. If you compare American fighters to Russian ones, they more often than not have a far higher range and payload than what would be considered their counterparts (take the F-5 and MiG-21, for example). While ground control is still a thing with American fighter doctrine, there's a bigger emphasis on independence, meaning that pilots are more flexible in how they can go about an intercept and far better prepared for en eventual engagement.
>>29154538
Basically this.
From what I read, first generation MiG-29 pilots were practically slaved to ground control.
>>29155796
Well, that was pretty much the idea, anyway.
As for comparison between rus/west pilots, I'd say western airforces (especially US) have the advantage of having been involved in a actual battles and have drawn blood, so to speak. Otherwise, it's fair to assume there are plenty of talented and motivated russian pilots.
>>29154414
They dont get enough hours. They've been increasing them but still not enough.
>>29154414
One thing that is for sure is that the average Russian pilot doesn't get the same number of flight hours/year as a contemporary Western pilot, and especially USAF/USN pilot.
Consequently, Russian planes and engines aren't built to last as many hours as western frames and engines, since they don't fly them as much before they are obsolete.
>>29155796
Yup. What makes it worse is that until recently cockpit ergonomics on slavshit has been horrifically bad. Many planes (like the MiG-23) were nortorious for their pilot workload, and across the board it seems that pilot workload for Slavshit is far higher than their Western counterparts.
At least they're finally starting to address it, though. One of the biggest changes that MiG made in the MiG-29M IIRC was unfucking the cockpit.
>>29154414
"RuAF" = VVS
Looks like "BBC" when written in Cyrillic.
The more you know.
>>29158624
>They dont get enough hours. They've been increasing them but still not enough.
What amount of hours are we talking about?
>>29158992
Training hours. Probably the biggest factor in effectiveness of an air force is training, and the Russians are lagging behind the US in that respect.
40 RuAF jets in Syria been doing 75 sorties per day and have tipped the balance of power on the ground in roughly 6 months.
180 US-led coalition jets are hitting 20 targets per day and failed to accomplish any declared objectives in almost two years
Draw your own conclusions.
>>29159394
My conclusions are that the Russians are supporting a more competent force from a base thats pretty much inside the conflict and dont need a 3 hour flight to drop a load. And they are coordinating with the Syrians, not just bombing left and right.
>>29158992
>By August 2010, according to the commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force Aleksandr Zelin (interview to the Ekho Moskvy radio station, 14 August 2010), the average flight hours of a pilot in Russian tactical aviation had reached 80 hours a year, while in army aviation and military transport aviation it exceeded 100 hours a year.[23]
In 2010 they were at 50% of the western average. Im sure they've improved with all the money they've been spending, but we will see if they release data.
>>29159394
It was about recon. Russians did as many flights, as Syrian and Iranian recon allowed to do. For obvious reasons, NATO has not so many eyes on ground and so many specialist who can sort and determine targets for air-strikes.
>>29158934
It's VKS now (air force has been renamed to aerospace forces).
>>29159394
here's your 100 rubles
or roughly 50 cents.
>>29159258
They are excelling in designing and implementing flight simulators.
Besides, getting enough hours in Syria atm
>>29159740
Simulators have limited utility in comparison to flight time.
>>29159952
But F35 is marketed as having high price per flight hour, but good sim to train.
>>29159988
>But F35 is marketed as having high price per flight hour
Right now, while they have a swarm of contractors picking at every detail after every flight.
>>29160190
AFAIK it'll stay high even for full production planes
>>29158694
>Consequently, Russian planes and engines aren't built to last as many hours as western frames and engines,
This. The engines in MiG-21s built during the 1960s required a full teardown and rebuild every 100 flying hours. I have never seen any information to indicate any mass-produced Russian jet engine suitable for military purposes ever got much better.
However, they're not built to last longer because Russian pilot training was, and remains, almost totally dependent upon classroom exercises, really primitive simulators of the kind Western air forces stopped using in the 1970s. The Russian thinking was that in a large-scale war with the West--read, "nuclear war"--neither the aircraft, the pilots, nor the war will last long enough for it to matter. Remember that Soviet pilots were conscripts, just like the infantrymen, and their lives were not individually valued. A Soviet fighter regiment was fungible goods, created with the assumption that it would be fed into the furnace at FEBA when the balloon went up, just like a motor rifle regiment.
>>29159394
One of my conclusions is that the Russians don't give a fuck about collateral damage and have Tu95s doing ARCLIGHT style strikes on every real or suspected rebel position. They are killing the fuck out of everything, whereas the Kenyan Sewer Rat is too afraid of causing civilian casualties to let the Air Force off the leash and get the job done.
The USAF could have done this too, with a commander-in-chief who was willing to send B52s to do ARCLIGHT strikes on fortified mosques and fortified positions instead of farting around with drone strikes on single ISIS officers.
>>29159420
Always keep in mind when you see these announcements that Russia is a nation that has a smaller GDP than Italy, pretending they're still a superpower. They're not. They briefly had a surplus of money to spend back when oil was $140 a barrel--which lasted about five minutes, you will recall.
