I’m a retired Naval Intelligence Officer. For a while I specialized in an array of Air Intelligence activities in the Navy Reserve that included duty at TOPGUN and StrikeU and during the 70’s was heavily engaged in Middle East Air Forces capabilities studies. You have done an excellent job in producing these videos . Your detailed analysis of multiple factors and conclusions are exceptional. Bravo Zulu!

I known I've posted this in earlier videos but I cannot say it enough; it is ridiculous how much good content this channel puts out in quantity. It has quickly joined the ranks as one of the premier military aviation channels. This channel is steadily growing but I have no doubt in my mind that it'll pass the 100k mark in the not to distant future if the quality and quantity remains the same. Also, I posted this comment to help placate the Gods of the Almighty Algorithm ! Can't wait for the next video.

The SA-6 was a huge shock to the Israelis and the west as a whole. Very effective missile system at the time.

Great video, 99.9% of aviation history videos on KZfaq dealing with the Arab-Isralei conflict are just IDF fanboi videos. So refreshing to see a video that focuses on the Arab forces.

Keep it coming. Far and away the best military aviation contributor currently operating. I am routinely humbled by how little I actually know in the jet warfare space, until your channel popped up. Cheers, watch you again soon.

I thought I knew the air war part of the Yom Kippur war, but I learned a ton from this video. This order of battle approach is extremely useful in understanding the approaches that the competing air forces talk before and during the conflict. Please keep it up.

Once again I am amazed at the high quality of the videos. These are mini-movies. Israel let us use their night, low-altitude-training (LAT) ranges before we did a “port call” into Haifa. I was struck by how small the country is, smaller than many Restricted Areas we trained in in the United States. It really must have been like fighting in a phone booth. I feel the most sorry for the Syrians. It appears their pilots really wanted to give it a go but didn’t have the missiles or guns to do it with.

I remember this war in 1973; with the passage of time, I look forward to your take on this war.

Another outstanding presentation. Thank you. Keep it up.

Love this channel

13:05 you refer to "Libyan MIG 5D", you mean Mirage 5D right? Sure looks like one, and then you mention that Israel had them too.

Another Great Video, One of the Best Military Jet Channels there is. Thank You for all your hard work that you put into each Video, Always enjoy ever second of it.

Informative and professional introduction video about aviation stroke during keppor war ...How superiority of aircraft's quality ,its weapons and IDF manpower of was notable...while Both Egypt 🇪🇬 and Syria 🇸🇾 gained some successful through utilizing of anti-airdefences Sam missiles nets.. thank you for sharing

I always believed to be well versed in the run up to this conflict, militarily, politically and intelligence services. Up till now there's 3 substantial facts I'd never heard of, and it's only the 2nd ad break. Excellent work. Very underated and underviewed channel.

As someone who has studied the Arab Israeli peace and wars this is a great piece of work with regards the main air forces arrayed against each other at the start of the 1973 war...

2.26 hosny mubark was EAF commander - Aly fahmy was air defence Commander since 1968

Correction: A.Sattar Alvi was named master of migs after the engagement with Israelis over Golan Heights.. He was named that because at that time there were no mig21's in Pakistan inventory, and most of the PAF pilots on arrival in Syria had never flown mig 21's which had cockpit instruments labelled in either Russian or Arabic, which added the to the headache for volunteer PAF pilots.PAF had F6(chinese mig 19's) upto that period. He became the top main instructor of F7(chinese variant of mig21) after their induction in PAF. A.Sattar Alvi was sent to Syria SAAF initially and not to the Egypt.

I remember as this war unfolded and the crossing of the Suez and how surprised we all were at the initial sucess of the Arab forces. Just watched your excellent prelude video, cant wait for the rest, slightly peturbed that this was 50 years ago....I remember then reading the Newsweek articles from then and listening to the barbers animated discussion about what'll happen next.. didn't expect the Oil Crisis and Sheik Yamani being the most apt name for a Saudi Oil minister...

This is a really good vid. It's well researched, informative, and balanced.

This channel is amazing, the level of detail is unique and fascinating

To my knowledge, the MiG-25s stationed in Egypt were either R or RB models, i.e. reconnaissance versions. The use of the latter as a conventional bomber, while possible, would be questionable in effectiveness.

Excellent channel. Love your work

Interesting to hear about the possible impact of the lack of what I would term depth to the Egyptian aircraft maintenance / support and their ability to correct battle damage. I very much fear that the US is in a similarly weak position today, with far too much dependence on sub contractors, under trained maintainers, and horribly snarled supply lines for parts, evidenced in part by extremely poor readiness numbers for aircraft like the F-35. Sub Brief took a good look at this recently for anybody interested.

Serious respect for this. You comprehensively list all the combatants, and from a perspective of real capabilities, training, combat experience, professionalism, hardware standards, airframe availability/reliability, and actual weapons performance, rather than merely quoting Janes/what people THINK a particular platform does on paper, like it is some kind of military hitbox RPG game.

Soviet set up there own Top Gun program in the late 60s.but the soviet refusal to allow the arabs pilot to train along side with soviet pilot.this lead to high attrition lost among the arab pilot.

Thanks again for a great video. The Osprey title "Arab MiG-19 & MiG-21 Units in Combat" makes for fascinating reading. The Arab pilots were not as incompetent as supposed and if they had had a decent AAM, Israeli casualties would have been a lot higher. As it was, they did well given their handicaps. The conventional wisdom is that the various arab air forces were hapless targets for the ten-foot-tall IAF warriors but the fact that the U.S. had to strip F-4s from active USAF units to send to Israel (some even still in USAF markings!) says a lot. Granted, a lot of those IAF losses were from the new SA-6 that came as a nasty shock, but the MiG-21 pilots gave a decent account of themselves. Even the MiG-19 might have been a good platform if the EAF hadn't decided they were worthless for the role because by most accounts it was a good dogfighter in the right hands. I still hope you do a video on Operation Rimon 20 if you can find enough source material.

what a video to release, mere days before the cycle repeats itself once again and it seems that the analysis was prophetic for the same problems the Israelis are facing today

join us for more videos about 1973 war

This is an astounding and fantastic study of the air war in 1973...thank you for this! Amazing...

For some strange reason I keep watching these videos, there very interesting and presented well but its the information that makes them in my opinion.

Well this was well timed

Great video! Excellent research and delivery!! You are a pro👏👏👏

Fantastic content! Well researched, thorough, and excellent background & context! Please keep up the good work! Not to be nitpicky, & perhaps someone here already pointed it out , but at 13:04 I think perhaps you meant Mirage instead of Mig 5b's? Anyway, thanks for a good in-depth analysis. Well done.

@17:10 I like the guitar hanging in the pilots outdoor station.

Why did the Egyptians have such a large number of their most capable fighters like the MIG-21 and MIG-25 in storage? Was there a reason why the Soviets would have the MIG-25's in storage in Egypt? Seems odd to me to ship those over but then not have them operational?

When I was in the navy I had operatuniny to talk some Israeli defense soldiers and they said a lot of things I can't repeat, even today, but I can tell that they loved the m-16 for its lightness and it's firepower.

Holy crap this was released 15 minutes ago. I'm there dude

Great video. Well researched and informative. At about 13:00 the voice over calls the aircraft a Mig-5 when i am sure you meant Mirage-5. Nevertheless, another quality video from a great channel. Keep up the good work.

7:57 The PFM is a further development of the PFS and had the SPS blown flap system as standard. There really isn't a neat divide between the PFS and the PFM, and apparently, the PFM designation only started to be used long after the PFS had received all the modifications (redesigned canopy, enlarged vertical stabilizer, upgraded engine and radar) that defined the PFM.

Hi, just wanted to give you a compliment and some encouragement, I think your videos are the best content on cold war aerial warfare I’ve seen anywhere, and thats saying something because theres a lot of excellent content out there. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your future posts. Thank you for all of the great work that you do.

That was fascinating. Cheers!

Awesome history video, thanks! So many wars to study, so little time.

What an attractive subject. Airpower from 1916 battles to the present, cannot wait from more subjects on the matter. Regarding the video, well paced, good graphics, and, more importantly, great explanation. Looking forward to more. Just a minor detail, we cannot underestimate the surface to air weaponry, it has been a factor in many air conflicts, specially in 1973 Middle East conflicts.

It’s amazing how quickly aircraft have become completely irrelevant with properly used modern SAM’s

(There is no "Mig VB" but there is a Mirage VB as shown in the photos.) Great content and analysis! Looking forward to much more. Congratulations!

Re. the Six Day War, I once read a story that suggested the Chief of the Egyptian AF (Sidki or Sidiki I think?) actually received some amount of warning about Israel's plans via the KGB/GRU, and managed to get airborne in a command & control aircraft before the first wave of strikes arrived. As the story tells it, he had a ringside seat for the destruction of basically his entire force, all the while begging the Soviets to send aircraft, send troops, send anything... I don't know how true it is or if it's just clever writing, but it _feels_ like it could be true. :)

During yom kippur war, Israel modified their A4 with extended exhaust nozzle with the intention of minimizing damage from SAM. Does it have drawbacks like drag or thrust penalty..? Been trying to find about it but couldn’t find it. Thanks 🙏.

Magnífico trabajo, enhorabuena

SAM launchers were the reason for IDAF difficulties

Aim-9B was still the standard in most of the western world at the time. It was to the J/P/N versions of the sidewinder that the AIM-9B was upgraded. Israel had the 9L in 1981 which the UK did not get until the Falklands. It was a Johnsson administration policy to provide Israel with the best weapons the US had and this has been every administrations policy since.

A very well researched documentary.

This channel is better than most :) very good 👍

Your content is just exceptional!

THESE ARE WELL PUT TOGETHER , THANK YOU FOR A FULL UNDERSTAND OF WHAT EVER HAPPENED. 😮😊

I love these videos

There’s a maneuver called a “Syrian lead turn” where two aircraft merge and the Syrian aircraft turns first such that it is either out front or almost out front of the opposing aircraft.

Great video...👍

I'd really love to see a continuation video on the war. One of my favorite parts of aviation history. Great video

Loving your work fella!

Excellent video, love this kind of stuff

These are always well-researched, constructed and presented videos. Many thanks. It is just so enormously regrettable - and tragic - that the events of the past weekend have occurred, spoiling this neutral historical assessment with unavoidable 'live' comparisons. May peace come soon. For both communities.

Just as good as I thought it was going to be. Great video. Can you pretty please do a part two about the actual battle?!

Please do a fact check! Mohamed Aly Fahmy was the commander of the air defence forces. Former president Mubarak was the air force commander

Dense stuff ... going to need s rewatch 😮ty Good Sir

The AIM 7 was tactically employed to break up and cause distrubtion in the enemy formation prior to the merge. It was not always deployed in the heart of the envelope to achieve a kill. Expensive but effective pre merge psych ops. Breaking up the incoming enemy formation has great advantages.

This is a production technical question, with no criticism intended toward your EXCELLENT content. Why can’t aspect ratio be adjusted? On so many videos using stock footage I’ve seen narrow aspect widened, and wide aspect narrowed, seemingly with no rhyme or reason. You’re a fantastically meticulous researcher, so there must a reason for these discrepancies in your own videos-if not in others’. What’s the issue?

Wonderfully thought out analysis. Thank you so much, much appreciated. I wonder if you would consider an unbiased study of the Indian and Pakistani wars and their tactics please? Your analysis is unbiased and fair and I for one would love to get your perspective of those conflicts, judging that some of the weapon systems are quite similar ( apart from replacing the phantom with the star fighter in this scenario ) with assumed quite different results. Thanking you in anticipation and keep up the stellar work. Cheers.

Another excelent video!

Great video!

Fabulous, well researched presentations; thank you.

time for round two I guess

Enter the ZSU 23 four barrelled radar directed 30 mm. Goodbye fighter pilot in close air support.

Look, it's the PU 36 Explosive Space Tumbleweed!

13:05 Mig 5B ?

One of the best autobiographies from anybody from a middle-east air force is "Saddam's Secrets" by Georges Sada. Sada was a General in the Iraqi air force, the first Iraqi to fly a Mig-21, and the only man who stopped Saddam's crazy son, who in a rage wanted to torture and murder all the captured allied pilots during Gulf War 1.

the air battle of El mansoura was a sight to behold, and its outcome is celebrated to this day by the EAF

War is cruel, I hope there will be no more war.

What plane is a mig5b ?

13:04 - I think you meant to say, "Mirage 5s", not "MiG-5s".

I do think the MiG 21 bears a passing resemblance to the English Electric Lightning. But with its Engines placed horizontally.

To my knowledge Palistan never operated the MiG-21. Instead they operated the Chengdu J-7 in multiple variants, and the original J-7 did differ from the MiG-21 F-13 it was based on because it had a different fuel system.

Noob question but I cant find info online, what the hell is positive delta mach

Great historical.❤ Just after 6 days war De Gaulle (FR) dicided ambargo against Israël who had Mirage III and was looking at Mirage V ( cheaper with lighter electronics) so Israël with Marcel DASSAULT secret help... ( AKA Marcel Bloch went 8 months at Bunkenwald because didn't coop with nazi + jewish) they manage to built the "NESHER" that still had a French ATAR engine, that mossad manage to find with U.D ?? ... later Israël "stoled" plans of mirage ( in swiss probably with Dassault help ?? ) and create Kfir with US engine services 1975. In 1973 Mirage III/V did incredible job, ultra reliable flying hundreds hours with NO service at all !!! Just refuel, rearm, changes exhaust pilots. Propably never happened such avaibility in aviation history hopeefully lots of F4 .. thx very good vid.

I think Pakistani and Indian air forces get slept on. Those guys have seen some combat over the years

Does anyone know if Israel used their Fouga Magister jet trainers as ground attack aircraft....a secondary role that it was designed to perform....i know they used them in that role in the 6 day war.

Hmm, it's interesting how youtube cut off the very last word that you dictated!! We all know how it ended and how it will end.

13:05 did you mean Mirage 5B?

27:30 Croatian Mig-21 over the island of Molat 😊

5:15 Sattar Alvi, ps excuse me sir but isn't that a Mirage III I am seeing here 13:05?

So basically their equipment was good(barring missiles), but their training(In Egypts case) and command structure was not. That’s why Arab Migs sucked, while Vietnamese Migs did very well. Kinda odd though how Vietnam was able to perform well with outdated missiles but Syria and Egypt couldn’t do similarly.

Will there be a part 2 to this?

It must be really difficult to train pilots in a hurry. The Japanese never got ahead of this in WWII. Pilots can switch planes but you can't replace experience.

Talk about foreshadowing

Forgot the IAI Sa'ar (super mysteres) which were also used

13:06 Thats not a MIG 5, thats a Mirage.

Incorrect about the mig21mf being superior to anything idf had outside the f4 . The m21mf was an up engined more powerful version of the f but it was a cheaper export only version with only 2 missiles and no gun unless the gun pack was installed.

Interesting how the MiG-19SF was not mentioned at all, despite being one of the more feared dogfighters.

In this war , Pakistani Airforce pilots scored 10 Air2Air kills against Israeli AF / DF

I just clicked so this clip is in my history. And because somebody maybe can answer this question: the 2 fighters in the thumbnail are Su-7 ?

This video was very informative regarding the actual air assets of all the nations involved in this conflict, but neglected to cover the principal reason why the Israeli Air Force did not enjoy anywhere near the same success against Egypt and Syria as it had in the 1967 Six Day War. The main reason for this difference, which lead to a much more costly outcome for the Israeli's losing many more aircraft in 1973 than in 1967, was not because they had somehow underestimated the enemy's air to air capability, but was however do almost entirely to their underestimation of the enemy's ground to air capability. During the interim years between these two conflicts, sophisticated Soviet surface to air missile systems had been installed in key positions along the borders of these countries, and when the Israelis flew in to attack them, as they had done with relative impunity in 1967, their aircraft were simply shot down by those batteries in such large numbers that the Israelis were barely able to pull out the victory.