>>64180846
>Except that the main reason for the Phantom performing badly was that American fighter pilots weren't trained well in air to air combat.
It's really notable that by the time Operation Linebacker kicked off the Airforce had already equipped their F-4's with gunpods based on their prior experiances, and they still got clowned on compared to the Navy who were running missile only Phantoms at the time. Made worse since the Navy didn't have the early IFF systems the Airforce Phantoms had. It just came down to the Navy Had implemented Top Gun (DAAAANGER ZONE) to address their pilots lousy combat proficiency levels, and the airforce hadn't yet.

>>64179859
>Also, I think another aspect is the Vietnam War's lingering cynicism.
>The irony is that US military itself saw the problem
More specificially it tended to be Vietnam Vets who'd actually flown hundreds of combat missions, and hadn't just seen the problems but experianced them first hand and were trying to unfuck them after the war. But that made them "establishment". So guys who'd never served or seen combat decided that they prefered "experts" like the Reformers (who predominantly had never served and none of whom had seen combat) to advise on what the Air-Force needed. So a lot of the cynicism in practice was very vibes based.
>Pic related: Creech's somberly repressing his horror when he realizes just how much tard wrangling he's in for