It’s commonly said that Russian fighter pilots are not as well trained as their Western counterparts, particularly those from the United States. But after conspiracy theories began to surface on social media about the Russian pilot colliding with the MQ-9 on purpose so Russian vessels in the Black Sea could recover it, the question of pilot competency within the Russian armed forces became more important.
So how does Russian fighter pilot training compare to the United States? Let’s investigate.
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Further Reading:
MQ-9/Su-27 interaction: https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/russian-fighter-jet-forces-us-mq-9-reaper-to-crash-land-in-the-black-sea/
Citations:
Su-27: https://aerocorner.com/aircraft/sukhoi-su-27/
Russian spending: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1203160/military-expenditure-russia/
US fleet size: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/largest-air-forces-in-the-world#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20of%20America,air%20fleet%20in%20the%20world.
RUS fleet size: https://www.globalfirepower.com/aircraft-total.php
PPP: https://knoema.com/atlas/Russian-Federation/topics/Economy/Inflation-and-Prices/Purchasing-power-parity#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20purchasing%20power%20parity,average%20annual%20rate%20of%206.03%25.
PPP Conversion: https://www.chrislross.com/PPPConverter/
Rand analysis: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2500/RR2573/RAND_RR2573.pdf
Air Force pilot training: http://sandboxx.us/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-train-an-air-force-pilot-a-lot
AF pilot trng: https://sofrep.com/fightersweep/how-to-become-a-us-air-force-pilot/
AF Pilot trng: https://www.airforce.com/careers/aviation-and-flight/pilot
IFF Course: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Magazine%20Documents/2000/July%202000/0700fighter.pdf
International Review: https://international-review.org/dwarfing-the-giant-the-reality-of-russias-military-part-ii/
US pilot hours: https://www.heritage.org/military-strength/assessment-us-military-power/us-air-force
US Pilot hours counterpoint: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-force-flying-hours-decline-again-after-brief-recovery/
Vietnam: https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/more-than-missing-guns-why-america-lost-dogfights-over-vietnam/
Red Flag: https://www.nellis.af.mil/About/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/2605882/414th-combat-training-squadron-red-flag/
Red Flag costs: https://migflug.com/jetflights/red-flag-military-excercise-at-nellis-afb/#:~:text=In%20previous%20Red%20Flag%20exercises,cannons%2C%20missiles%20and%20drop%20bombs.&text=Boom%20Freq.&text=Boom%20Freq.,-Egress%2FExit
Plopski quote: https://hushkit.net/2021/03/23/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-russian-air-power-but-were-afraid-to-ask-with-guy-plopsky-part-1-how-good-is-russian-air-force-training/
source
Doubt the Russian wanted to risk his plane. He might have wanted to use his jet wash to damage the drone but blew it. Too far out to sea to pick it up for intelligence gathering so no gain there.
America must patrol two oceans and two land borders. Russia worries about 2 borders – Europe and its southern borders near china/middle east. So why invest in a big air force when its massive land border is cheaper to patrol with humans. Russia only has one (barely usable) aircraft carrier. China has India, south china sea and korea/japan to patrol.
The Russkis are Klingons.
@Sandboxx Nice clip and lot´s more info about things that people honestly ignore like PPP which was great that you added. I would like however to argue that the drone was never physically hit by the Russian fighters – as an aviator you should have mentioned this or at least have analyzed the data which is attainable on open sources such as this one.
Lemmi know if you´d be interested in a private debate as to why and how I come to this conclusion.
I wouldn't trust Russians to teach a dog to sit.
Excellent presentation! I'll be looking for more of your videos!!
Russian regulars in all branches receive abysmal training. Usually, only their special forces or elite swat receive actual high level training
>no bias
>immediately starts comparing it with the most powerful airforce in the world
A lot of assumptions
I love how Russia was made to be so big and bad and how everything Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman produced was over engineered shit.
And now everything is changed.
Turns out, Russia is the paper tiger some of us have been saying all along.
Turns out, Rachel Maddow is a fucking idiot and the Felon is probably shit tier vs an f-22.
Turns out, aside from the Bradley fuckup, the M1 Abrams is actually a damned tank the Armata is probably garbage.
Turns out, Russia is fucking poor and can't afford shit.
Turns out? The media was caught lying, again.
Wow. Big shock. We knew all this before. We've had pilot exchange programs before. In the late 90s. Now, because of Ukraine, let's hop on the hype train like peons and forget all the facts.
Fortunately, the Internet is timeless.
Russia has always bluffed, it's the only real power it has. The US has been exaggerating for decades because, hey, War is good for Business…
This drone thing is so overblown.
Thanks for the video man. Gotta say that Su-27 is hot. Gorgeous aircraft.
OMG, what a stupid video, this guy became an expert on Russian pilot training after two weeks, just because US combat drone was rammed down from the sky near Russian borders. GO HOME YANKS, WE DO NOT WANT YOU HERE
Honey new cope was released after ruskie plane shat on nato drone
Western assessment n West wins…
Go fight Rusians..
There’s a lot of bad American pilots also especially with the wokeness. If your the right color or sex they’ll push you in front of everybody just to I’ll a quota. What about us fleeing a third world country in Afghanistan? That definitely shows incompetence
The crash was un intentional, basic common sense. He was dumping fuel. Why do that if your gonna sink it into the sea. That's like pissing on a car your gonna blow up. Shows the IQ of some people.
I do really like the look of the Su-34
37 million dollars for su27 lol. F22 is like 220 million 🤣 and the su27 is no slouch of a jet even though it's older. That's cheap for such a op jet.
I was looking at the video thinking about how cool the Russian planes look. Of course, I have no idea how they perform in the air. But, hey, they do look cool on the ground.
Wow 🤣 OK to me it's common sense that whoever rules the air wins the war in modern times. Is America the only one that realizes this?
If you have control over the airspace with jets and anti air you can do anything. Like send in helicopters. Send in slower ground troop support like apaches and a10s. Ac130s.
With air support the ground war is like 10x easier 🤣
Oh you got 10 tanks outside the city harassing you. OK we can send 2 a10s to wipe them up for the price of bullets 😂
If you don't rule the sky you lose. Period.
Do this for the Chinese air force next
The jet you are in is as only as good as the pilot flying it
As long as we over estimate Russian pilots and their jets our guys won’t become complacent. I don’t have to fly so I can make fun of what Russia has against our guys. All I can say is Russia’s military from one end to the other is a joke and their invasion of Ukraine is proving that.
I'll save you 18 minutes pretty bad
Stupid and greedy putin could've been as strong as the us, they are nothing but a bunch of thieves, worst than the us. They have no limit, and that shows on that weak ass show of force against Ukraine, and don't forget Afghanistan. Sad
I stopped watching the moment you cited the heritage foundation as a source. These are the guys that say global warming isn't real and tobacco is good for you.
looks like i need to go join the russian air force just so i have a chance of flying a fighter jet lmao
Oh, you're the glasses guy from tiktok
Anyone that think a pilot is "bumping" their multimillion dollar jet into another object INTENTIONALLY, is a moron.
Obvious accident resulting from incompetence.
Guys, even BIRDS getting ingested into engines have taken down MANY aircraft – of all shapes and sizes. BIRDS. From fighters, to passenger airliners. And we could all see the Reaper prop tips damaged, and mangled.
The pilot was lucky he didn't FOD out his engine, or damage anything severely enough for him to crash/eject. Though, to scrape an aluminum propeller like that, I guarantee he landed with some damage. Would be great to see. Damage on the fighter aircraft probably looked similar to how manatees look from boat propellers.
Did the SU-27 even crash into the drone? The released footage was incomplete, never showed the actual contact. Never showed the tail after impact, just a damaged prop. It would be highly unlikely to be able to hit the prop and not hit the tail too, and if the tail were hit, it would be unlikely the drone would remain in controlled flight. Something stinks.
I think su 35 and 22 are beautiful. Do u agree?
I think the su57 is a great looking aircraft much more attractive than the F22 that being said SLAVA UKRAINI🇺🇦