Username Protected wrote:
When McDonnell built the F-4 and declared that turning dogfights were a thing of the past, they hadn't anticipated the rules of engagement that would require visual ID to be made before firing.
Makes me wonder how the air war in Vietnam would have gone if US planes were allowed to shoot when they were still BVR.
We would have gotten more MiG kills but it wouldn't have altered the outcome of the war. North Vietnam was fighting a guerilla war in the air same as they were on the ground. They didn't have to win either the air war or the ground war, they just had to hold on until we got tired and went home. Guerilla wars are exceedingly difficult for the non-guerilla force to win if the guerillas have a nation willing to make good their losses and the will to stick it out for enough years.