I found a web site that mentions north koreans in the arab-israeli war. Worf_Israel do you know anthing about this? It's an old article In another article it said that n.k. sent 25-30 pilots in the 3rd and 4th arab-israeli war. I wonder how well they did?

Without question the USAF is the best AF in the world; however, in many specific areas the Israeli AF is number one. In every published account of mock air to air combat between the IAF vs USAF or USN Israel seriously dominates. This is simply a function of pilot training as the Israeli pilots fly more than anyone else. As far as equipment is concerned the US has the best overall but again in many areas Israeli avionics are better. The avionics industry in Israel is not only world class but is a huge export industry and *much* of it is found in US and NATO ac. Normally with another name by a partner nation company. The current Israeli AWACS system is in many ways superior to US systems- phased array radar vs mechanically scanned. Finally, Israel orders US aircraft but with much of it's own avionics. Some US stuff is better but much of the Israeli electronics is actually superior. Israel has a superior short range AAM and how good it's BVR missle is compared to AMRAAM is not available. Plane for plane and man for man they are as good or better than anyone but the IAF is not the USAF- nobody else is even close.

Tettet--if there were North Koreans fighting Israel (why, I have no idea), my guess it would be that they did no better than anyone else. Israel, with the exception of a handful of dogfights, generally annilihates opponents in air combat. The NKs did send pilots to Vietnam, and a few scored kills against the USAF. Even more got shot down and they wrecked so many MiGs that the Vietnamese eventually, politely kicked them out of the country. Israel's been overtly participating in Red Flag at least once in the last three years. The RAF and the Armee de l'Air usually put in an appearance as well.

I have to kind of take issue with what is apparently considered law by most on here. I don't see how the claim can be made that the Israelis are the most seasoned and experianced force in the world, whether it be on the ground or in the air. As far as Air Forces go. I'd have to guess that the USAF has dropped more ordinance, flown more combat hours, and generally performed far more operations then the IDF has since it was flying Me-109s. The Iraqi reactor strike was used as an example to start this off. And same as an earlier post, from eveything I've ever heard it was four F-16s dropping thier bombs unopposed. Was that pretty much the last time they actually did that? Have they done much CAS or other strikes in the past twenty years? I cant really think of anything of the top of my head. Meanwhile in the same time frame, The USAF has hit Libya, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq again, and then Iraq yet again. I'm sure I'm leaving out a few as well. The British being involved in alot of those air campaigns as well, would lead me to believe that Israel would not be nearly as experianced by comparison to the US and Britain. In my opinion, to have a trully experianced force, you would have to be fairly heavily engaged at least every five years, to a maximum of ten, before that experiance is lost. Maybe I'm missing something though

the tactics of the IAF are different from the american air force , because of the different tasks , budget and so forth. in some cases ans scenarios it is proved that the IAF is better then the USAF , but it says nothing , since the USAF does not put emphasys on those. never the less , i think that there is no doubt that the IAF is a superb fighting force with amazing capabilities (last attack on syrian ground proved that point). about the reactor in iraq - f16's were the air- ground and f15's watched their back... Lt. Mk (res.) i speak for no organization

Oh sure! Best global army, best global air-force, best blue water navy..whatever. I shake in my shoes at Israeli global reach! Is this a Strategy site or is it sponsored by IDF part-timers? Get real people!

why do you get so annoyied? it started as a question and everyone can post what he thinks. i think we are all here in order to exchange opinions. i know i learned a lot from this forum. and beeing an israely you will never see me claim that we are the best at anything , nor do i think there is an answer to these questions , but thats a different argument.

Wrong: I'm amused! Because these discussions are so dated and every conversation defaults to Israel. It's a very good REGIONAL power.

why do you think is that? do you imply that there are so many israeli writers in this forum? i am realy interested to know, i am not teasing or something...

The Heyl Ha'avir (showing my IDF leanings here!) is a great air force for what it was designed to do: defend Israel. It is able to project power over the Middle East to a certain extent. The USAF and USN, on the other hand, are designed to project power worldwide. It's almost apples and oranges. Man for man, I would say that the Heyl Ha'avir is equal to the USAF. Experience wise, very similar, with the Americans and Brits having the edge. Air combat--well, Israel hasn't been in air combat since I think 1984, whereas the US has fought one major and two minor air/air wars since then (Gulf War I, Bosnia, Kosovo). In the last two examples, less than twelve pilots saw any shooting air/air. So again, I would say about equal. The Israelis have that awesome reputation, which counts for a lot. While I think the USAF is probably better, the IDF set the standard for others to beat.