Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE
The principles upon which the IAF had been built had now been tested in
combat and not found wanting, and the broad directions that Israeli air
power should take were now clearly perceived throughout the Israeli
high command.
American and United Nations’ pressure subsequently compelled Israel
to surrender all its conquests in the Sinai, but a UN buffer zone kept Arab
guerrillas from raiding into Israeli territory from the south, and the Strait
of Tiran was opened to Israeli shipping. An uneasy truce extended over the
next decade, marked by intermittent border clashes with Jordan and Syria.
With the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964 and the
occurrence of a military coup in Syria, which put an even more extreme
anti-Zionist government into power in Damascus early in 1966, the Egyptians
were encouraged to close the Strait of Tiran again and give the United
Nations Emergency Force, keeping peace in Sinai, its marching orders.
Thus, the UN left and, with Arab armies massing along their southern and
eastern borders, the Israelis in June 1967 decided on another preemptive
attack against the strongest of their opponents.
Prelude to the 1967 War
This time they were outnumbered in every way. The core of the IAF’s
245 combat aircraft consisted of 72 Dassault Mirage 111s. Backing them up
were 40 Super-Mysteres (half of them borrowed from the French) and
60 Mysteres. There were also 48 obsolete Ouragans and 25 Sud-Aviation
Vautour I1 light bombers, and-for what they were worth, which was
nothing in the air superiority context-76 Fouga Magister 2-seat jet
trainers that carried a pair of machineguns and could be fitted with airto-ground
rockets. The Egyptians had about 450 operationally ready
combat aircraft, including 120 MiG-2ls, 80 MiG-l9s, 150 MiG-17s and
-15s, and 30 Su-7s, plus 70 11-28 and Tu-16 bombers. If they intervened,
the Syrians and Jordanians could add another 170 machines including
36 MiG-21s and 22 Hawker Hunters. There was also the possibility of
the Iraqis adding some of their 100-plus MiGs, Hunters, and light bombers
to the Arab totaL4’
Qualitatively, too, the Arabs had an apparent edge in equipment. Their
newest fighter, the MiG-21, designed as a short-range interceptor, had an
excellent thrust-to-weight ratio, which provided it with sparkling acceleration
and a high rate of climb. Armed with two 30-mm cannons and two
“Atoll” air-to-air, infra-red, homing missiles, “its only real weakness lay in
its lack of structural strength that limited its speed at low altitude^."^^ Like
the MiG-21, the Mirage 111 was comfortably supersonic, but its weight/
thrust ratio was lower so that its acceleration and climb were slightly inferior
to the MiG’s. A low-wing loading gave it a good turning capability
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