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

THE ISRAELI EXPERIENCE
it was probably no coincidence that the IAF’s commander noted “the Jordanians
were the best our fliers engaged in the air.”67 Only two of the Israeli
pilots survived, to be taken prisoner by the Iraqis.
However, the Israeli strike accounted for nine MiG-2ls, four Hunters,
and two transport planes destroyed on the ground.68 The Iraqis, like the
Syrians, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made no
more attempts to bomb Israel, while the remnants of the Egyptian Air
Force kept bravely plugging away, flying their remaining MiGs and Su-7s
in generally fruitless attempts to help their hard-pressed army in the Sinai.
O’Ballance quotes Israeli sources as claiming that the Egyptians lost sixtyone
aircraft and the other Arab forces lost sixteen in air-to-air engagements
during the war.69 A dozen or so Israeli aircraft may have been lost to airborne
Arab fire; another thirty-plus fell to ground fire or were lost accidentally,
according to a knowledgeable private Israeli ~ource.~O
If those figures are approximately correct, then the Israeli ratio of victories
to losses in air combat during the 1967 war was in the region of six or
seven to one. Bearing in mind the damage done to Arab morale (and to their
command control system) by the preemptive, counterair strikes that
opened the Israeli campaign, it is perhaps surprising that the ratio was not
French-built Mirage 111 fighters, faster and more capable than their MiG
opponents.
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