Who is Better? Fighter Pilots NATO vs Russia



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Western (USA & NATO) vs Russian Pilots – who is better? Join me as I tackle this monumental question and explore the ins-and-outs of two ways of war, that really aren’t comparable.

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Justin Bronk: https://www.rusi.org/people/bronk

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– Timecodes –
00:00 – Pilot Skill in Context
01:10 – The Basics
01:20 – Flight Hours
02:03 – Synthetic Training (Simulator)
02:42 – Specialization
03:35 – Systems and Structures
04:52 – Force Requirements
05:42 – NATO Pilots
16:58 – Sponsored Segment
18:48 – Russian Pilots
25:32 – Working The System
36:10 – In a Nutshell

– Audio –
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound

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44 thoughts on “Who is Better? Fighter Pilots NATO vs Russia”

  1. Russian pilots are much more experienced in flying nonreliable aircraft, crashing aircraft, eject aircraft, being shotdown. So their survive skills are better compared to NATO pilots which skills are better in flying, combat and teamwork.

    Reply
  2. Flight hours, better aircraft, better training, etc…. these are all reasons I hear as to why NATO pilots are better than USSR… er… Russian pilots. Here's a huge reason as to why the scale is tipped so heavily in NATO's favor: NATO pilots train constantly against one another and fight Red Air adversaries using Red tactics. Russians do not practice this concept in the sense of defensive BFM or counter-offensive tactics. They don't train to be on the defensive. Their doctrine truly has them believing that they simply won't find themselves on the defensive.

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  3. If the war in Ukraine says anything it seems that there is not much to say about Russian pilots, it's airforce and the management of them both. They are more and more invisibel and flyes mainly in Russia or deep inside occupied areas.

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  4. It's also the type/how they are using those flight hours. Pilots can have hundreds of flight hours per year, however, if those flight hours and or most of them are just literally just flying around, than it's crap training.

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  5. The Iraqi Air Force under Saddam were trained and equipped based on USSR standards and the results spoke for themselves. US technology has drastically improved since I was fixing F-16s at KKMC (and those F-16s are long retired, later Blocks being far different despite external resemblance to the novice). US flying hours per pilot have been drastically reduced to save money and fleet age is far older than in 1991, but training quality and ability to generate high sortie RATES remain. (Sortie rates should get more love but they don't excite spectators who don't really care about operations, just their shiny object fantasies.)

    Reply
  6. Good program! It seems russian operations are dependent of guidance from a command center, like GCI and the pilots have to follow those orders guided from the ground, That requires good communications! However seen demonstrated that those communications can be completely jammed out from adversaries. So what do the russian pilots when all communications are lost? Suppose they have alternative procedures to act independently from ground control. Like defect to the west as in MIG-25 that landed in Japan.

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  7. I can not comment on NATO pilots vs russian, but I will tell you that American pilots have already proved themselves against russian "honchos" in both the Korean, and Vietnam wars. We showed them the quick way to terra firma! Russian pilots will never have the esprit de corps that American pilots have.

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  8. I really think you are confused about your own video. The only topic is the quality of the pilots, not the equipment or tactics used in force structure. There is no doubt the NATO pilots are better trained. NATO has the ability to send pilots to TOP GUN in the US. Italy also has a special training school for NATO pilots. It is all about training which becomes muscle memory for different scenarios. The Russian pilots are just as capable if they received the same training. Russia uses a different mindset in the way it would fight, pilots are the last to know what they should do in combat because the orders trickle down from the top by people who are not in the fight. How can you say the Royal Air Force is the busiest Nato Air force?

    Reply
  9. 40+ minutes to say the answer? NATO, WITH BETTER AIRCRAFT, BETTER TRAINING, BETTER MAINTENANCE, BETTER PILOTS, BETTER STRATEGIES, BETTER PROFESSIONAL ETHICS, BETTER ALL AROUND, while Russia is a laughing stock in EVERYTHING!!!!!

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  10. While NATO Air Forces may have shrunk, and became less relevant after the fall of the USSR, the Russian Air Force has been slowly dying from atrophy, and the corruption that is rampant in it. From procurement, maintenance, technology, and training, the Russian Air Force has been largely stagnant at best, and decaying at its worst. NATO and the US in particular has continued to expand its R&D and development of advanced aviation and weapons systems. Russia, and China to a larger degree can only manufacture cheap copies of the advanced combat aircraft in the NATO inventory. But one of the biggest advantages NATO pilots and aircrews have over their Russian and Chinese counterparts is; their comprehensive training, skills, expertise, and experience as combat military aviators. Also the command and control ability in NATO to strategize, and deploy at every level of command.

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  11. Additionally the cultural differences are important. Russians have a history of Soviet centralised control. Western countries have a more unconstrained culture. Both of these are often reduced under military training but the personalities are always there despite the training.

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  12. Whether it was NATO Russian pilots who get into a bunker fight as I’ve been told it’s all down to who’s the luckiest in the acm who wins although when you add in a dash of skill and experience you may just may have the skill and luck to stay alive on that day

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  13. These are exactly the issues we were taught and discussed when I was a NATO fighter pilot in the UK in the early 1980s. I really appreciate the specificity from Chris, Billy and Justin in this video, applying the lessons learned over the past two years. Very well done.

    Reply

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