The case for the Mig 29 during the cold war.

After the fall of the Berlin wall, the west found itself several version of the export Mig 29 from East Germany. Many flaws and advantages were discovered and is summerized here:

I am a person whom believe in seeing purpose through viewing design intent; especially for military hardware which men would have argued to the death before even building it.

The scenario I see going through the designer's head is that. the soviet union is being attacked by nato, the forward airfields will be heavily damaged, with stealth bombers penetrating into the motherland. Knowing that the USSR cannot resist Nato's aerial onslaught at beyond visual range and that steath technology is optimized really for head on approaches, they designed a fighter aircraft which have an excellent climb rate, very good off bore (IRST and HMS) systems to hit stealth aircraft where they were not stealthy and the ability to operate from damaged airfields.

I think this is also to do with the mindset after WW2 with the western allies, bombing their enemies to oblivion; where the philosophy is to hit hard and hit fast and take out the enemy in the first round. The Luffwaffe bombed the crap out of the SU. Where, the SU used light, rough airfield capable, short ranged aircraft to contest the airspace from the luffwaffe; thus, the SU had as it appears a philosophy, of absorbing the first blow and grinding the enemy to a halt.

Thus in this role, I think the Mig 29 is quite well suited. Thoughts?

Well I watched a translated from Russian to English Mig-29 and SU-27 video from youtube. (search BITNIK). Of course, there are boasting in it. If I remember correctly, Mig-29 were designed to take on F-16 type aircrafts on equal grounds and be also used to weaken the F-15 type air superiority aircraft. This way, the SU-27 be used to finish off the remaining air superiority aircraft and breakthrough to enemy territory.

Both the SU27 and MIG 29 predate the stealth program in the us but not mind you by much. I always felt that both air frames came about more as a reaction to The F14 just as the F15was a reaction to the mig 25. Until the flanker and fulcrum the Russian airforce looked to be happy to use the mig 23 in air dominance roles with the MIG25 as the heavy player against bombers and against the tornado and phantom2 those craft would have done well but then the F14 showed up soon trailed by the F15 and F16. These aircraft caused the russians to debate particularly because there turning and flight characteristics in combination with new missiles and programmes like constant peg and top gun made the migs of that time inferior. The russians like the us had to jump back from missile trucks to dog fighters. There answers the flanker and the fulcrum both targeted max manouverability as the russians were not convinced they could match western missile tech. There hope was to dodge kong range shots get in close grab western fighters by the belt and make the kill with the superior cannon fire.