spotterwilliam wrote:slightly offtopic, but it looks 'easy' to shot these fighters out of the sky. Is it because the equipment they got from russia, or because the lack of skill from the pilots?
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Consider the success of the SA-2 over North Vietnam against US Air Force and US Navy aircraft including F-4s, F-105s, B-52Hs. Even when adding radar warning receivers and jamming, these aircraft remained very vulnerable against radar guided surface to air missiles.
Now consider that the SA-10 is a highly modern air defence system, several times more advanced than the 'ancient' SA-2 of the mid sixties and that the Ukraine Air Force lacks ELINT, jamming and SEAD capabilities to counter these threats. A skilled pilot may be able to out turn an earlier model SAM like the SA-2 or SA-3 (beaming) but modern day SAMs utilize thrust-vectoring missiles that can pull many more Gs than any modern fighter can sustain, let alone its human occupant.