A Mirage vs F-16 dogfight under the gaze of 10,000 spectators at Athens flying week and Qatar sending Rafale and Mirage 2000 to Turkey
With the Greek Air Force possessing a very large percentage of fighter aircraft of American origin before and after the post-colonization, in the last 40 years or so it has been a tradition for the presence of even a limited number of fighters of French origin in the overall fleet of the Greek Air Force, a tradition that has and specific business benefits.
More or less the types of American-origin fighters are the same in Greece and Turkey, so the presence of French fighters, first with the Mirage F1, then with the acquisition of the more advanced 3rd and 4th Generation versions of the Mirage 2000 fighters, has been estimated to give an advantage in the Aegean.
This happens, since the respective French fighter is an aircraft that the other side does not “know”. This is the reason why, in close dogfights in the Aegean, the Greek aircraft of the French type are very quickly victorious over the Turkish ones.
Indicative of the Turkish pilots’ anxiety about the unknown French fighters, is that the Qatar-Turkey military agreement is being activated for the training of Turkish pilots in the French Rafale fighters, recently acquired by the Greek Air Force.
It envisages the repositioning for the next 5 years of 12 Rafales at Turkish airports with the aim of training Turkish pilots to deal with the top French fighter. Along with the Rafale, Qatar is also sending 9 Mirage 2000-5EDA/DDA.
According to the “Pacemaker” column of the well-known newspaper “to Vima”, in front of the eyes of more than 10,000 spectators of the Tanagra airshow, a virtual dog fight took place. Dogfights take place every day in the Aegean, but dogfights with… spectators? Possible; And yet it is, since a Greek F-16 was confronted by an also… Greek Mirage 2000-5. Which one would win? Which would intercept which? After all, this is also the unanswered question among pilots.
Two fighters of two different types, one French-made and the other American-made, were ordered to carry out a mock dogfight.
The two fighters suddenly appeared in the sky of Tanagra. Their engines roared, the spectators watched with bated breath. Among them was the leadership of the Air Force. A foreign fighter pilot, (participating in the airshow), was so excited to see a dogfight in front of him, that he climbed on a chair and started recording with his mobile phone, the really dangerous maneuvers that the two fighters did.
They were trying to “catch” each other’s tail. In other words, let the interception take place. Deathly silence prevailed among the audience. Even the officers of the Air Force, with thousands of flights under their belt and with so many interceptions in their careers, remained fixated on the two fighters.
At some point, the Chief of Tactical Aviation, Lieutenant General (I) Giorgos Fasoulas, was asked, which pilot of the two fighters will emerge victorious? Mr. Chief, without looking up from the planes, said… “the Greek”. But both were Greeks, but the Air Force officers gave the answer that our pilots in the Aegean give every day, whether it’s night or day: “The Greek is the one who wins.” That’s all they said, while the fighters were finishing the dogfight.
