Word: 15s
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Incapable of Attack. Moscow has indeed sent replacements for two-thirds of the 255 jet fighters-mostly MIG-15s and MIG-17s-that were destroyed in Egypt and Syria during the war, but MIGs are defensive weapons designed primarily to shoot down enemy planes, and the Russians have been notably unhurried in supplying either country with the weapons of modern offense. Western intelligence reports indicate that Russia has replaced only a third of Egypt's 700 lost tanks, only half of its 50 bombed-out bombers and almost none of its heavy guns. Russia, moreover, has long since stopped...
...Hanoi's own, why the decision to commit a fledgling force of some 60 MIG-15s and 17s and only 15 MIG-215 to combat with the vastly larger and more experienced American air armada? The most likely explanation: in severing Hanoi's rail links to China, the U.S. was hitting so uncomfortably close to home that every defense had to be employed. Under the high drama of last week's dogfights, the workhorse bombers were busy as ever. Guam-based B-52s unloaded 300 tons of high explosives on the Mu Gia Pass infiltration route into...
...stopped by the application of U.S. air-and seapower, but it would clearly be a tough, hard fight. North Viet Nam's navy, numbering about 26 PT-boats and some 50 armed junks, is inconsequential, while the straight-shooting air force mounts only 36 jets -all obsolescent MIG-15s...
Weakness in the Air. Though China's air force ranks third in size in the world (behind the U.S. and Russia), its 2,900 planes are mostly obsolete MIG-15s and 17s. Western experts prediet that China will soon start turning out a few advanced MIG-19 and 21 jets on its own, but production will be slow and light. In any air clash with U.S. Navy and Air Force jets over Southeast Asia, Mao's planes would certainly be swept from the skies in a matter of days. Even the Chinese Nationalists, flying slow F-86 Sabre...
...aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip on aprons. The Hawk is a killer at up to 45,000 ft. and at a distance of 22 miles, homes in on enemy aircraft by radar. The dispatch of the Hawks was merely an extra precaution against the possibility that some 50 MIG-15s and MIG-17s-a gift from Red China-sitting still unused at Phucyen airbase near Hanoi, might be called into action. One 18-missile Hawk battery flew out of Okinawa, was in position at Danang little more than 24 hours after being alerted...