It was about 13 years ago so its been a while BUT … I was at Nellis AFB and I was invited to a ‘social’ hosted by the Indian Air Force (right place, right time). I was chatting with 2 of our fighter pilots and 3 of theirs in a kinda ‘gaggle’ over Indian ‘beers’ (not my thing). I was a little torqued, and I was the only Army officer in the room so I didnt give a fuk about nuthin. I straight asked the group “no bullshit … what country has the best dog fight pilots”. Of course after claiming they were, they, TO A MAN said Taiwan. I was like WHAT THE FUK? Taiwan … what??? According to these guys, they train every training mission as a Kobayashi Maru . Their trainers always program their airframes to have some kind of malfunction during engagements against superior numbers. Over and over and over. They live in a constant state of threat from China so for them the shit is VERY real.
Take that for what its worth. Hearsay from 13 years ago but that always stuck with me. I expected to hear Israelis, or Russians, or Jordanians, or Saudi … nope Taiwan.
It was about 13 years ago so its been a while BUT … I was at Nellis AFB and I was invited to a ‘social’ hosted by the Indian Air Force (right place, right time). I was chatting with 2 of our fighter pilots and 3 of theirs in a kinda ‘gaggle’ over Indian ‘beers’ (not my thing). I was a little torqued, and I was the only Army officer in the room so I didnt give a fuk about nuthin. I straight asked the group “no bullshit … what country has the best dog fight pilots”. Of course after claiming they were, they, TO A MAN said Taiwan. I was like WHAT THE FUK? Taiwan … what??? According to these guys, they train every training mission as a Kobayashi Maru . Their trainers always program their airframes to have some kind of malfunction during engagements against superior numbers. Over and over and over. They live in a constant state of threat from China so for them the shit is VERY real.
Take that for what its worth. Hearsay from 13 years ago but that always stuck with me. I expected to hear Israelis, or Russians, or Jordanians, or Saudi … nope Taiwan.