Ukrainian Fighter Pilot Reveals How US F-15 Jets Helped HD

A Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot who goes by the call sign ‘Juice’ has been giving interviews to media outlets about how Ukrainian aircraft and air defense systems have managed to keep the Russians in abeyance for over a month now. The Ukrainian Air Force has managed to do this with MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters. How ‘Clear Sky’ Drills Helped Ukraine: Also, the Ukrainian pilots had some experience with large-scale high-intensity conflict scenarios from lessons learned from the US Air Force, particularly during the ‘Clear Sky’ series of drills in 2018 which was the first-ever joint multinational exercise hosted by Ukraine. During Clear Sky, the MiG-29 and Su-27 sparred with the F-15s of the California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing wherein the F-15s replicated the tactics and performance of Russian Su-30 and Su-35S Flanker fighters. The F-15s that took part in these maneuvers were older than the Ukrainian MiGs, they had been highly modernized and were considered much more capable than the Ukrainian MiG-29s and Su-27s that have undergone only modest and piecemeal upgrades. Even still, the Ukrainian pilots were “sometimes pretty successful, just using our flexibility and creation of non-standard decisions,” Juice recalled. “We did plenty of basic fighter maneuvers with our F-15s against their MiG-29 and Su-27 and to be honest we could tell instantly that their pilots were very good. The various tactics and techniques used by the Ukrainian Air Force in this war remain classified for obvious reasons but surely the war has reset the bar on a wide range of established air combat doctrine and dogma. “The Ukrainians are defining modern warfare,” Jersey told Coffee or Die. Meanwhile, the Russian Air Force has so far used Su-30 and Su-35S aircraft for almost all of their air-to-air missions. Of these, Juice considers the Su-35s as the most dangerous because of its powerful radar and long-range R-77-1 air-to-air missiles with an active radar seeker that enables ‘fire and forget’ capability which is absent in the Ukrainian armory. “It’s very capable, unfortunately for us,” said Juice of the R-77-1. “The lack of fire and forget missiles is the greatest problem for us. Even if we had them, our radars couldn’t provide the same distances as the Russian fighters.” Furthermore, the Russian side has an advantage in air-to-air missions as well “because sometimes it’s one versus 12 or two versus 12,” explained Juice. “They have the advantage of situational awareness, radar range, missile range, missile guidance principles, and electronic warfare, and they still are sending so many jets against one MiG.” ----------------------------------------------------------- DSC Video Belongs To GrowlingSidewinder #UkrainFighterPilot #UkraineAirForce ---------------------------------------------- Source and Credit : https://eurasiantimes.com/ukrainian-fighter-pilot-reveals-how-us-f-15-jets-helped-kiev-battle-a-superior-russian-air-force-led-by-su-35-fighters/ ---------