I know that the intent of the Topgun school is to produce the best fighter pilots [possible. To that end, the pilots are pitted against other pilots who play the role of the enemy. The RAF sends pilots to the school-do other NATO and allied nation’s airforces participate? How well do the swedes (with their SAAB fighters) do? Are they able to keep up?
The SAAB fighters are technically interesting-they are designed to operate from short airstrips-are they good fighters?
I don’t know, but the TopGun school is a Navy thing. The Air Force has “Red Flag” and a lot of NATO countries do send pilots there, including the swedes according to that wiki page. You might have better luck focusing your search on Red Flag. The TopGun page doesn’t say anything about other countries participating, although it does talk a lot about some dude named Maverick for some reason…
I’ll have to look for it later, but a few years ago I read a summary of an Air Force joint exercise with India which yielded some surprising (to the U.S.) results. Going from memory here…
The Air Force predicted they could maintain dominance despite something like a 5-to-1 disadvantage. That is, 5 Indian MiG 21’s in combat against one of our F-15’s. Turned out they could handle only something like 2-to-1, and the reason was interesting.
The upgraded MiG-21 BIS the Indians were flying was not nearly as technologically advanced as the Air Force planes. But they were very, very fast. If the MiG was not destroyed by a missile shot and was able to get in close, they could cause a lot of problems. Within gun range, the MiG was about as capable as the F-15.
The Navy Fighter Weapons School (A.K.A. “Top Gun” of movie fame) in Miramar, CA was merged with two other schoolsin 1996, moved to Fallon, NV and is now called the The Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC). So the Top Gun school of movie fame no longer exists.
The Navy owns a small number of USAF aircraft that it uses as the “enemy squad” at Fallon. These planes were originally meant to be sold to Pakistan, but that sale fell through for reasons that I cannot recall.
That surprises me. Just how upgraded are these things?
I also read years ago that, when the rules of engagement are visual (no missile launches at radar contacts), the physically smaller fighter aircraft had a disproportionate advantage, because they could spot the larger aircraft just before being spotted themselves, and maneuver to be in a position of relative advantage by the time the other aircraft spotted them.
But I do that even your basic MiG 21 was pretty badass. Mach 2 fighter that could turn inside an F-104. Not very long legs, but in the hands of skilled pilot it was capable of a lot of mayhem.
Red Flag is an exercise, not a school like “Top Gun”. The Air Force equivalent of “Top Gun” used to be called Fighter Weapons School. Not sure if it has been renamed and/or merged into something else since I got out back in 1992…
The other high level advanced school for pilots was called Test Pilot School. All of the guys I flew with were graduates of one of those programs, and there was some degree of rivalry between them. The common belief was that the best sticks–ie, the guys that were the best at putting the airplane where they wanted it to go under any circumstances, were the Fighter Weapons School guys, while the best brains were the Test Pilot School guys.