
avon1944 wrote:Let us keep things in perspective, the MiG-23 was designed before the Viet Nam War (1st flight 06/67), the F-14A and F-15A were both designed with lessons from that war in mind. Both of these fighters were designed to out maneuver and simply out fight all previous Soviet designed fighters. The YF-16 and YF-17 were desired to be more maneuverable at most dogfight speeds than the F-14A and F-15A.
The way the USN and Iranian F-14A's plus the way IDF/AF's F-15A's and F-16A's handled Iraqi and Syrian MiG-23's are a good example of how the fourth generation American fighters dominated the third generation Soviet fighters.
NUFF SAID!
Adrian
Your statement is correct when we see turn rates, rate of climb and avionics, the F-16 was utterly superior to the MiG-23MF and even to the MiG-23MLD, that is true, however the F-16 had a vital weakness from 1974 to 1992, this weakness was it never had BVR missiles until the first AIM-120 and AIM-7s were deployed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In 1982, over the bekka Valley, it relied upon the F-15 for BVR protection, the MiG-23 had AA-7 Apex of 35 km of range and an IRST system in a gondola underneath the fuselage frontal section; Russian/Soviet literature affirms Israel lost a few F-16s and F-4s to MiG-23s, in the case of the F-16 it`s difficult to confirm since Israel only admits to have lost an F-16 in that year in an accident and F-4s, an A-4 and two Kfirs to Syrian SAMs.
There are also claims that one of the Kfirs was destroyed by a MiG-23.
Israel only admits the aircraft which got their pilots killed and POW, so all the pilots were confirmed by the media and the palestinians, such as Aharon Ahiaz, Aharon Katz and Gil Fogel.
The Pakistani case is also a very controversial one since the original statement was that the F-16 was shot down, but later it was recanted to just fraticide and kill by its own wingman, Soviet/Russian literature says a MiG-23MLD shot it down.
By 1991, the F-16 was ready to get the AIM-120, and one shot down even a MIG-25 a year later, however according to US sources, the USAF lost five F-16s, some Soviet/Russian sources say the Iraqies originally said they shot down up to 20 F-16s, among them one F-16 was shot down by a MiG-23.
If we are to belive the Russian sources we have to see that in 1983, the MiG-23ML was armed with a better radar and R-24s of longer range almost matching the F-15s capabilities, and the F-16s in 1982 could not match the R-23T with an AIM-9L.
Israeli/western sources say the R-23 were totaly neutralized by jamming the Saphir radars carried by the MiG-23MFs, however never take into acount the fact the TP-23 IRST system is inmune to Jamming and this can be used to cue the IR version of the AA-7 Apex, the R-23T and also the IRST cued variant of the AA-8 Aphid, the R-60MK.
At Marii in the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, Agressor MiG-23 units training MiG-29 pilots usually defeated the MiG-29s drivers simply by doing quick attacks without getting into close combat dogfights and only using BVR attacks.
The MiG-29 since its deployment has had AA-10s BVR missiles, the F-16 was utterly defenseless at BVR combat against a MiG-23 during the late 1970s and early and mid 1980s.
The AA-11 also surpasses the range of the AIM-9L, however the MiG-23MLD in Afghanistan only carried the AA-8 Aphid, but it was able to carry the AA-11 since the late 1980s.
So early in the 1990s a MiG-23MLD was more or less a match to an F-16 in weaponry, in some cases even superior, and in the late 1980s the MiG-23MLD was superior to any F-16A deployed in Europe in what respect weaponry.
However the MiG-23 was never a match to the F-16 in cockpit avionics or agility and most of the performance parameters.
In general fligh characteristics the early MiG-23 variants such as the MiG-23M were more or less analogues to the F-4, later variants like the MiG-23ML slightly superior to late F-4 models, like the F-4E, but by just a very small margin. the MiG-23MLD was considered in some parameters almost an equal to the F-16 but it never was considered superior, just that it closed the gap between the third and fourth generation.
One of Few of the MiG-23`s excellent characteristics was the use of Head Up Display radar imagery, since the targeting sight was used instead of the head down radarscope in order to present the radar information in front of the pilot`s eyes, since the MiG-23 never was fitted with a radarscope, basicly aiding targeting and the pilot`s general awareness.
Its view from the cockpit was not as bad as it has been claimed, certainly not as good as the one an F-16 pilot enjoys but certainly it had some aft view thanks to a rear view mirrow in a periscope above the canopy.