The Cold War Conventional Weapons: Aerial Warfare

Figure 1.--The first operational American jet was the Lockeed F-80 Shooting Star developoed at the end of World War II before German jet technology became available. Here we see American boys being shown a model as part of a tour. . The press caption read, "Wright Field, Ohio: 'I jave read a book on how to fly and I can fly anything that flew.' wrote 12-year old Don Krugerr, 617 Wellmeir Ave., Dayton, in asking the Air Transport Technical Service Command for one of its surplus airplanes. Don, who also designs air planes, and his Air Comandios, are greeted at Wright Field by Brig. Gen. L.C.Craigie, engeneering chief, who said he coudn't give them an airplane, but provided a guide to tour them through ther field's labortoies instead. Left to right are John Lewis, William Douglas, Richard Tangman, Awakkard Louis, Terry Carter, Floyd Sullivan, Harry Hall, Edward Sgaper, Leo EWray, Anythony caldwall, Robrt Van Meter, Don Druh=ger, and Gen. Craigie." Notably the next generation of American jets aswell as ther first grenretration mof Doviet jets bore a strinking resemblence toi Germnan jets, most notably the He-162.

It was air power where the Soviets lagged consistently behind the United States. And air power proved especially important in the Cold War, beginning with the Berlin Air Lift. Stalin did not take air lift capability seriously after the German disaster at Stalingrad where the Luftwaffe despite leveling the city proved an abject failure at supplying the encircled German 6th Army. The capability of the United States proved very different than that of the Germans and not only supplied the military garrison in West Berlin, but the entire city as well. In fact, the city was better supplied than during the Soviet blockade. Cold War aircraft would be dominated by jet power, introduced by the Germans at the end of World War II. It is not surprising that the first Cold War air combat would be conducted by the Soviets and Americans. It first occurred in Korea after the Communist invasion of South Korea. And it involved aircraft that looked surprisingly similar (the American F86 Sabre and the Soviet Mig-15) and not surprising like like German World War II jets. As the Cold War unfolded, Soviet aircraft would fail time and time again to deliver victory to Soviet allies and client states--beginning in Korea (1950-53). Here it was not so much the air frames or even the engines that proved inadequate, although some Soviet aircraft might be called 'flying tanks' in the Sturmovik tradition. The critical difference in Cold War air combat was both electronics and training. And of course before electronics became increasingly important, training was vital. Notably Soviet and Soviet client pilots never got the training of American and Israeli pilots. Soviet pilots rarely 'officially' flew against American pilots, but combat in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East pitted American and Soviet aircraft in aerial combat. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) after the Independence War (1948-49) at first used French planes, but eventually got top-of-the- line American aircraft. They devastated Soviet armed Egyptian/Syrian/Jordanian/Iraqi air forces in encounter after encounter. The IDF rang up lopsided victories even against the most advanced Soviet aircraft. The same occurred in both Korea and Vietnam in aerial combat between fighters. The aerial victories of Col. Robin Olds is a notable example. The leading all jet ace was an Israeli IDF pilot flying American aircraft, Giora Epstein. His victories came with French Mirages and the Israeli Mirage clone, although he finished his career flying American F-16s. In the later period of the Cold War, missiles became increasingly important. They became the primary delivery system for nuclear weapons. In conventional terms anti-aircraft missiles became important. They reduced the impact of American aircraft in Vietnam and Soviet aircraft in Afghanistan.

Created: 9:12 PM 1/27/2022
Spell chcked: 4:38 AM 1/28/2022
Last updated: 4:39 AM 1/28/2022