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{{Short description|none}}File:Mig21JM.jpg|thumb|A Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21|alt=A black white photo of a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21After World War II, there were many instances of air-to-air combat between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Korean War

{{See also|MiG Alley}}During the Korean War formally the air forces did not meet, as the Soviet Union was not a combatant in the conflict. In August 1945 the USSR declared war on Japan and commenced their offensive campaigns against the Japanese Army. Moving into Japanese occupied Korea, the Soviets gained a foothold in that region, ultimately making it North Korea, and an ally to the Soviet Union. Nearly 72,000 Soviet personnel served in North Korea and their presence was concealed by both the Soviet and American governments.{{harvnb|Brune|1996|p=215}} Following the outbreak of the Korean War, air dogfights between USSR and US pilots were numerous. The Soviets flew planes with Chinese or North Korean markings, and were initially forbidden from speaking Russian over the airwaves. The ban was soon lifted due to obvious problems with using Korean to communicate in critical battle situations.Yevgeny Pepelyayev – top ace of the Korean War by Diego ZampiniDuring the conflict the American F-86 Sabre pilots claimed to have destroyed 792 MiG-15s in air-to-air combat for a loss of 78 Sabres – a phenomenal 10 to 1 kills-to-losses ratio.War Monthly (1976). MIG V Sabre, by Rodney Steel (p. 48). The Soviets claimed to have downed over 600 Sabres.Sewell, Stephen L. "Russian Claims from the Korean War 1950–53." {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061101081848weblink|date=1 November 2006}} korean-war.com. Retrieved: 19 July 2011.Zhang, Xiaoming. Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|1-58544-201-1}}. More recent research by Lake Dorr and Warren Thompson has claimed the actual ratio was closer to 2 : 1.Dorr, Robert F., Jon Lake and Warren E. Thompson. Korean War Aces. London: Osprey Publishing, 2005. {{ISBN|1-85532-501-2}}. A 2009 RAND review concluded that the actual kill : loss ratio was 1.8 : 1 overall, and likely closer to 1.3 : 1 against MiGs flown by Soviet pilots.Stillion, John and Scott Perdue. "Air Combat Past, Present and Future." {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006120643weblink|date=6 October 2012}} Project Air Force, Rand, August 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2009.Igor Seidov and Stuart Britton. Red Devils over the Yalu: A Chronicle of Soviet Aerial Operations in the Korean War 1950–53 (Helion Studies in Military History). Helion and Company 2014. {{ISBN|978-1909384415}}. Page: 554.

Vietnam War

{{See also|List of Vietnam War flying aces}}Unlike North Korea, Nationalist China invaded French Indochina (Vietnam) in 1945 to regain the region from the occupying Japanese military at the end of World War II,Toperczer, Istvan. MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units, p. 7{{relevance inline|reason=Needs more information to show that this is actually related to the PRC and USSR's contribution to North Vietnam|date=April 2023}} but were unable to gain a foothold in North Vietnam. Student North Vietnamese MiG pilots were sent to China and the Soviet Union for up to three years for training. Also student North Vietnamese SAM operators were sent to the USSR for about six to nine months of training.Toperczer, MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units, pp. 10–15Davies p.53 Soviet and Chinese Communist pilots were restricted to test flying MiGs which had been exported to North Vietnam from their countries.Toperczer, MiG-21 Units, p. 77Michel, p. 297 Due to the urgency brought on by Operation Rolling Thunder, and until North Vietnamese missilemen could be trained, Soviet PVO SAM Anti-Aircraft Missile operator/instructors were quickly deployed to North Vietnam in 1965, and through 1966 were reportedly responsible for downing approximately 48 US aircraft during the war.Davies, pp. 8, 40WEB, 2010,weblink Robin Olds: Mastermind of Operation Bolo, acepilots.com, April 12, 2010, Zampini, Diego, There is one reported ace pilot from the USSR, Col. Vadim Shcherbakov who is credited with 6 air-to-air kills.WEB,weblink Task Force Russia – Report 17 March–16 April 1993 18th Report, Library of Congress, 2018-06-19,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20190324224111weblink">weblink 24 March 2019,

Cold War

During the Cold War many nations including the Soviet Union and the United States were fiercely protective of their airspaces. Aircraft which entered an opposing nation's airspace were often shot down in air-to-air combat. The incidents produced a heightened sense of paranoia on both sides that resulted in the downing of civilian craft. Many of the aircraft listed at that link were not shot down as a result of Cold War paranoia by US or USSR aircrews, but rather direct action by active combatants (for example, the two Air Rhodesia flights).The table lists air combat losses outside of the war zones, such as Korean War or Vietnam War. It does not include losses to ground-based defenses, and it does not include civilian aircraft.{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%"! Date! Location! Plane shot down!Intercepting Aircraft! Interceptor!width=5% class=unsortable| Reference

Baltic Sea	US}} US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer	Lavochkin La-11>La-11 "Fang"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces	Samuel	p=150}}2010 >URL=HTTP://WWW.AVIATION-HISTORY.COM/CONSOLIDATED/PB4Y-A.HTML	PUBLISHER=AVIATION-HISTORY.COM	LAST=BAER	URL-STATUS=DEAD	ARCHIVE-DATE=OCTOBER 19, 2010,

Vladivostok	Soviet Union}} Soviet Naval Aviation A-20 bomber	Vought F4U Corsair>F4U-4B Corsair	US}} US Navy	Zhang	p=241}}

|October-December 1950|Near Vladivostok

Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces MiG-15	P-2 Neptune>P2V-3 Neptune (Defensive guns)	US}} US Navy		WEBSITE=WWW.VP-6.ORG, 2018-12-20,

Vladivostok	US}} United States Navy	P-2 Neptune>P2V-3 Neptune	Lavochkin La-11>La-11 "Fang"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces		TITLE = THE LOCKHEED P2V NEPTUNE & MARTIN MERCATOR	LAST=GOEBEL, Greg,

Sea of Japan	US}} United States Air Force	B-29 Superfortress>RB-29 Superfortress|MiG-15 "Fagot"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces	Polmar	p=20}}

Kurile Islands	US}} United States Air Force	B-29 Superfortress>RB-29 Superfortress|La-11 "Fang"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Vladivostok	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces MiG-15	Grumman F9F Panther>F9F-5 Panther	US}} US Navy| Grossnick and Armstrong 1997

Sea of Japan	US}} United States Air Force	B-29 Superfortress>RB-50G Superfortress	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17>MiG-17 "Fresco"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Siberia	US}} United States Navy	P-2 Neptune>P2V-5	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15>MiG-15 "Fagot"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Hokkaido, Japan	US}} United States Air Force	B-29 Superfortress>RB-29 Superfortress	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15>MiG-15 "Fagot"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Hokkaido, Japan	US}} United States Air Force	Boeing B-47 Stratojet>RB-47E	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15>MiG-15 "Fagot"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea	US}} United States Navy	P-2 Neptune>P2V-5 Neptune	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15>MiG-15 "Fagot"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Armenia, USSR	US}} United States Air Force	Douglas DC-6>C-118	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17>MiG-17P "Fresco"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces		TITLE=PUBLISHED COLD WAR SHOOT DOWN INCIDENTS	ACCESS-DATE=APRIL 4, 2010	FIRST=ROBERT L.	ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20090611143826/HTTP://WWW.AIIPOWMIA.COM/KOREACW/CW1.HTML, June 11, 2009,

Armenia, USSR	US}} United States Air Force	C-130 Hercules>C-130A	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17>MiG-17 "Fresco"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Kola Peninsula, USSR	US}} United States Air Force	B-47 Stratojet>RB-47H	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19>MiG-19 "Farmer"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces|

Erfurt, East Germany	US}} United States Air Force	North American Sabreliner>T-39 Sabreliner	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19>MiG-19 "Farmer"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Force|

Gardelegen, East Germany	US}} United States Air Force	B-66 Destroyer>RB-66 Destroyer	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21>MiG-21 "Fishbed"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Force		TITLE = RB-66 DESTROYER	ACCESS-DATE = APRIL 4, 2010, Globalsecurity.org,

Armenia, USSR	US}} United States Army RU-8 Seminole	Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17>MiG-17 "Fresco"	Soviet Union}} Soviet Air Defence Forces	Samuel	p=151}}

See also

• Post–World War II air-to-air combat losses
• 1958 C-130 shootdown incident
• 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident
• 1964 T-39 shootdown incident

References

Footnotes

{{reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

• BOOK, Brune, Lester H., The Korean War: Handbook of the literature and research, 1996, 1996, Greenwood Publishing Group, 0-313-28969-7,
• Davies, Peter. F-105 Wild Weasel vs SA-2 "Guideline" SAM, Vietnam 1965–73. Osprey 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-84908-471-0}}.
• Michel III, Marshal L. Clashes, Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965–1972. Naval Institute Press, 1997. {{ISBN|978-1-59114-519-6}}.
• Toperczer, Istvan. MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War. Osprey Combat Aircraft 25. {{ISBN|978-1-84176-162-6}}.
• Toperczer, Istvan. MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War. Osprey Combat Aircraft 29. {{ISBN|978-1-84176-263-0}}.
• BOOK, Polmar, Norman, Spyplane: the U-2 history declassified, 2001, 2001, Zenith Imprint, 0-7603-0957-4,
• BOOK, Samuel, Wolfgang W. E., Wolfgang W.E. Samuel, I always wanted to fly: America's Cold War airmen=, 2001, University Press of Mississippi, 1-57806-399-X,
• BOOK, Zhang, Xiaoming, Red Wings Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea, 2004, Texas A&M University Press, 1-58544-340-9,

{{Korean War|state=collapsed}}