Watch Video to relive Dog fight B/W Israeli fighter jets and Arab Air Forces Fighter jets
The Arab–Israeli conflicts were a series of wars between the country of Israel and its surrounding Arab neighbors. Those that involved dogfighting occurred between 1948 and 1985. The wars escalated on 14 May 1948, the day Israel declared its sovereignty from Britain.
The War of Independence was followed by the Suez-Sinai War in 1956, the Six-Day War in 1967, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the First Lebanon War in the early 1980s.
The wars began with both sides using propeller planes, such as Spitfires, Avia S-199s, and P-51s, then progressed to older jets like MiG-15s, Dassault Mysteres and Dassault Mirages. In the latter wars dogfighting ensued between modern aircraft, like F-15s and F-16s against MiG-21s and MiG-25s.
Although usually outnumbered, the Israelis managed to defeat the air forces of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in dogfights, often achieving kill ratios ranging from 10:1 to over 20:1, which is usually attributed to better training of the Israeli pilots and a technological advantage
Arab MIG-21s vs Israeli Mirage IIICJs
MiG-21 and the Mirage III had comparable performance, despite the latter boasting a delta wing while the Soviet fighter had both a delta wing and a conventional tailplane. The Israeli Mirage IIICJs engaged Arab MiG-21s at least 25 times between July 19, 1964 and June 10, 1967. Some of these encounters were only fleeting, while others evolved into fully blown air combat.
Victories were claimed or credited during 17 of these engagements.The participation in a successful air combat was no guarantee that an individual pilot would achieve a kill credit. The MiG-21-to-Mirage IIICJ combat loss ratio was 16:1. Around 22 of the 23 MiG-21 kills credited to Shahak(Mirage) pilots in 1966-67 were claimed with cannon – the other victory was a “no weapon” maneuver kill. Conversely, three of the five Shahaks lost to MiG-21s during the same period fell to “Atoll” AAMs.
