What was the most active and successful (most kills!!) British Combat Jet since 1955 (non-Harrier)?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
21

Id say theres more here than people give credit for…
Tornados, Bucanneers, and Jaguars all performed admirably during the first Gulf War. Its just that air to ground missions aren’t as enjoyable to hear about as air to air combat.
Im gonna toss my hat in with the Tornado though (since the Harriers off limits)

As for the F-117. If more than one had been shot down there’d be pieces of both on display at the museum in Belgrade. Trust me CNN would have no problems reporting the loss of more than one Stealth especially of it would make the US Government look bad. As for operating down low… this was a tactic put inplace after the first Gulf war when it was discovered that French Radar could infact detect the F-117 albiet after it was too late to do anything about it. Weather or not this is still a tactic in use I have no idea.

After further investigation… It was an SA-6 SAM (not the shoulder fired SA-3) along with a healthy dose of AAA that brought down the F-117 Actually two of the 4 that were fired hit the plane and the claim of a Mig-21 kill was a missle SUPPOSEDLY fired at the same aircraft

22

Ok if we’re talking about strike aircraft and not just those with air to air kills then I would add the Canberra to my original selection of Tornado and Hunter, If I had to choose one though it would have to be the Tornado, even if it wasn’t a purely British aircraft.

While we are on the subject of Yugoslav claims of air victories I think they are highly doubtful for a number of reasons:
First we would have definitely seen more happy Yugoslavs dancing on the wreckage of yet another F-117 had they actually managed to down a second.
Secondly, if a Yugoslav MiG 29 had managed to blunder into the path of an F-15E it would have been a feeding frenzy for the F-15E. If by some miracle the claim is true [(-D][(-D] then why no happy Yugoslavs dancing on the wreckage of the Strike Eagle.

Btw, the wreckage of the one stealth that was downed is in Yugoslav army’s airspace museum (along with the wreckage of a Tomahawk) in Belgrade, where is the other wreckage?

Cheers
Darren

23

I would go with the Hunter although I have ar idea that the Gnat has a few kills too.
Dai

24

Darren Let’s face it the Meteor would have been outclassed by the Me262, let alone the Ta183, sorry Mig 15, 5 years later.

No apology necessary.

Karl

25

Indeed, the indians where very delighted with the Gnat, they even called them Sabre Slayers!
And they produced a lot of Ajeets, a direct derivative of the Gnat.

26

i love the tornado, the way it looks and sounds. but! wasnt it withdrawn from a lot of missions in the 1st gulf war due to the brits, italians, saudis and kuwatis all having a high loss rate with it?

27

I totally agree with your assessment on it being on CNN if it happened.
I found references online to both the SA-3 and SA-6 being involved, so who knows! Maybe they thought it was the SA-3 and it later turned out to be the SA-6 or something. However, the SA-3 is the Goa, (S-125/SA-3 Goa) which is not shoulder fired. It is a ground based system, similiar in deployment to the SA-6

28

Yes…the Gnat is a nice little airplane, also the one used in the move Hot Shots!!

I agree that the Meteor would have been outclassed by any jet made after 1945, but it did get a few kills against Mig 15s in the Israeli wars with Egypt and Syria…so not all that bad…

After working as a journalist in Washintgon DC I can say without a doubt CNN has the worst news coverage in the DC area. No policy people would ever take what CNN says for use in comfirmation of any information…they are simply not critical enough beyond the obvious, find me a New York Times article and im yours!

Milan

29

I didn’t know the Tornado was a British plane
I thought it was a joint euro plane ???

30

Talking of Tornado’s, did you guys know that a Tornado GR.1 had a Mig 29 kill in the '91 Gulf war? Yes, its true! A GR1 dropped a bomb right on top of a Fulcrum. OK, so it isn’t a strict “kill” but how many other bombers ca make the same claim?

Also, the Tornado F.3’s are worth mentioning. To the best of my knowledge, they have never seen combat, however on many exercises over the years this aircraft has proved to be a capable opponent to Mig 29’s. F-15’s and F-16’s. I think if the F.3 ever did see combat, it would bring a rude awakening to the pilots flying against it. Just my two cents worth.

Darren.

31

Milan- I was trying to remember what those Hot Shot planes were. Haven’t seen that movie in years

32

I found the New York Times article that corisponds with the second claim. However, there is nothing at all about the March 24th one.
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/032899kosovo-rdp.html

33

the jaguar,if that’s even british i don’t know

34

If we’re going on the basis of kills scored; British made (but not necessarily flown by the RAF or Fleet Air Arm), and not the Sea Harrier, then the Hunter leads the way - the Indians, Iraqis and Jordanians scored victories with their aircraft. In fact, the Hunter probably outscores the Sea Harrier.

We can’t be sure of the exact numbers, given that overclaiming (genuine errors and propaganda) is a constant risk, but the Air Combat Information Group website suggests the following:

The Jordanian Hunters appear to have shot down two Israeli aircraft between 1964 and 1966, and inflicted damage on several more.

Iraqi Hunters appear to have destroyed up to eight Israeli aircraft between 1967 and 1973.

Indian Hunters would seem to have been responsible for the destruction of up to 23 Pakistani aircraft in 1965 and 1971. By the by, it would seem that the IAF Gnats/Ajeets might have scored up to 19 kills.

Again, I can’t be certain of these figures, but throw them in for interest.

As for the RAF, there are several mysterious ones…

  1. There are persistant rumours that an RAF Hunter FGA 9 brought down a MiG-17 during the ‘Confrontation’ with Indonesia, and even stronger suggestions that a Gloster Javelin shot down an Indonesian C-130 during the same conflict. Both - especially the latter - are said to have been manoeuvre kills, but a groundcrew member from 60 Sqn, RAF has reported that on the evening that the C-130 went down, a Javelin returned to base missing a Firestreak (IR missile). It was claimed that this was an emergency jettison rather than a firing, but the groundcrew noted that the firing lead which would have been severed during an emergency jettisoning of the weapon was still on the rail - and it wasn’t severed when the weapon was fired…

  2. Also, there are suggestions that a de Havilland Venom ran into a MiG-15 during the Suez affair and shot it down. I’ve not seen the evidence for this myself, but a couple of usually trustworthy sources are convinced that this happened (based on chatting to the pilots and drawing inferences from some of the remarks made), but was ‘hushed up’ for some reason.

  3. The C-130 vs Hunter FGA 9. In 1966, a C-130 was stolen by a US airman from RAF Mildenhall. It is very likely that he lost control of the aircraft and crashed into the sea, having been shadowed by RAF Lightnings and a French Mirage III. However, the rumour that a Hunter from (variously) RAF Brawdy, RAF Boscombe Down or RAF Chivenor was sent up with a full load of 30mm ammunition and came back with rather less has never been totally discredited…

As for the most active aircraft in terms of delivering weapons against enemy targets, that’s probably going to be the Canberra. Saw action in Malaya, at Suez, during the Indonesian confrontation, in Vietnam, during the Indo-Pakistani wars, in the Congo (by India on behalf of the UN), by the SAAF in Namiba and elsewhere, by the Rhodesian AF during the UDI wars, and by the Argentine AF during the Falklands/Malvinas war

The Hunter appears again as a rival - as well as the nations just mentioned in the bit about kills, the RAF used it in combat, as did the Lebanese, Rhodesian and Somalia air forces (and the Omani air force might have flown it in combat, but I’d have to check).

The Tornado doesn’t really count as a British aircraft as it’s a collaborative project, ditto the Jaguar and ditto the Harrier after the GR 3 model.

35

Oops - double post, and the delete function seems not to be working for me. Sorry!

36

Archie, I have several air power books that confirm both the jordanian and indian kill rates you gave, so it must be pretty good data.

37

So the choise is between the real classic jets such as hunter, meteor, canberra etc.

Although not a fighter, the Canberra also is a very succesfull aircraft, in terms of number of users, combat record and longlevity (it’s stil beeing used by the RAF)
A sign of the quality of this aircraft is the fact that, whilst the USAF normally is very hesitant to adopt foreign designs, the USAF also used their own version of the Canberra.

38

We can also add anti shipping to the Hunters laurels. Who else remembers the Torey Canyon?
For the benefit of those who don’t, around 1965 an oil tanker ran aground off Southern England. To prevent it’s spilt cargo coating the beaches it was bombed & set on fire by RAF Hunters. ( well thats how I remember it, I can’t be far wrong)
Pete

39

A bit before my time Pete, but Ive read about it… 1967 Torrey Canyon ran aground spilling enough oil to creat a 35 mile slick. I thought it was Royal Navy Bucc’s that did the bombing - Unsuccesfully

40

Ah, 1967, I’m sure it was a joint RN & RAF effort but my (Siss cheese) memory has a painting on a Brooke Bond tea? card or something similar, of Hunters swooping in to bomb. Maybe it was a kit catalogue, or an RAF year book, someone on here should also have seen it.
Pete