I had found this on reddit. I don't know how trustworthy the source, but it claimed to be authentic (with some proofs provided)
I found it quite interesting, especially looking to the other side of the fence.
- I put the links to the interviews below.
- If you don't want to read the full interview I put some quotes I found really interesting (at least as Israeli)
- If you really lazy to read the quotes, in the nutshell
- MiG-21 is amazing aircraft besides hard to land
- Mirage III was very dangerous opponent in 73, Phantom wasn't that scary
- SyAF training was poor ~50 hours a year. They claim that IAF pilots have minimal 350 hours a year (actually I always looked to find numbers but I didn't. If it is true than IAF is most trained air force around, also 350 looks like too high number)
Major Mohamad Hassan Al-Ali, 65 years of age from Aleppo. I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1968. I flew the DHC-1 Chipmunk UK for training and the Aero L-29 Delfín. During active duty, I flew the Mig-15, Mig-17 and the Mig-21. I flew during the 1973 war with Israel. I have engaged in dog fights with IAF F-4 Phantom and Mirage III in and outside of Israeli airspace on four occasions. I was the 1st response and interception squadron leader based out of Hama airport in charge of protecting the Syrian coast, the middle region and Lebanon.
http://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3aim2e/retired_syrian_air_force_pilot_and_68_to_80/Q. What is your opinion of the Mirage? Of the phantom?
A. The Mirage is not to be underestimated. I personally have a lot of respect for the Mirage. Its a fierce adversary especially when flown by experienced pilots like the IAF. The F-4 Phantom was an excellent ground attack fighter but as far as air to air combat, it did not scare me.
Q. How do you rate the different fighter/bombers you faced in battle (F-4 phantom, A-4 Skyhawk, Mirage IIIJ etc)
A. The Mirage III was the best in my opinion. When Syrian pilots knew that the were going against the Mirage they took it very seriously and watched out carefully.
Q. How would you say the AA missiles deployed by IAF (Aim-7 Sparrow, Aim-9 Sidewinder, Shafrir-2) performed versus your own AA-2 Atoll?
A. Almost equally matched. The Sparrow and Sidewinder did have a slight advantage but over all we were a good match I think.
Q. How did syrian pilots coordinate with own SAM batteries so that you were not shot down by own forces?
A. We were constantly communicating and making sure the people on the ground knew where we were exactly. Those incidents did not happen as often as the media later said and when they did it was on very rare occasions.
Colonel Abdulsatar Al-Assaf from the city of Hama. 49 years of age. I graduated from the Air Force Academy in late 1988. I flew the MBB 223 Flamingo, the PAC MFI-17 Mushshak for training and the Aero L-39 Albatros. I also flew the Mig-21MF during active duty. I was mainly an instructor and I served at ''Ksheish'' military airport and the Academy at ''Kweiress'' military airport. I instructed Yemeni pilots in Yemen between 2010 and 2011. I defected in late December 2012. AMAhttp://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3ab9ju/syrian_air_force_pilot_colonel_abdulsatar_alassaf/Q. Do you have some info about what happened to syrian air defense on September 6, 2007 when IAF bombed secret syrian nuclear reactor, as a part of Operation Orchard?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_OrchardA. There's nothing the SyAF would have been able to do. The coordination and the speed of execution was beyond our capabilities. Just to give you an example, at one point a group of IAF F-16 flew over the presidential palace in Latakia and nothing was done about it. I was working the radar that day. The IAF have AWACS's that jammed our signals and we had 400 targets on our screens, 400! Scattered all over Syria. Which one was live and which one was a decoy? Even if we wanted to scramble jets and go after them, where to start? It was like an invasion!
Q. How was flying the mig 21 like?
A. Amazing aircraft. Lethal, agile, excellent performance, can take a good beating and very maneuverable. Only difficult to land.
Staff Colonel Ismael Ayoub from Rastan, Homs. 48 years of age. I was drafted in 1986 and I graduated from the Air Force Academy in late 1989. I flew the MBB 223 Flamingo for training and the Aero L-39 Albatros. I also flew the Mig-21MF, the Sukhoi SU-22 M2 and SU-24 on active duty. I was serving at the ''Seen'' military airport. I defected in May 2012. AMA
http://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3a2sqo/im_syrian_air_force_pilot_staff_colonel_ismael/Q. What was quality of training in (pre-civil war) Syrian Air Force? Especially training for ground attack mission.
A. Our training was very inadequate. The training was not aimed at making us ready to defend or attack Israel, who was supposedly our biggest enemy according to the regime propaganda. The leadership was reluctant in improving the training curriculum and there was a general consensus that they did not want to have qualified pilots. Therefore there were a lot of accidents, incidents and deaths within the ranks of the SyAF because of the poor training and also outdated equipment. There was an accident for every 200 hours of flight. These incidents were classified and we were not allowed to talk about it.
Q. How well were SyAF aircraft maintained?
A. Five years prior to the revolution, the maintenance teams were very good and honestly produced miracles given the fact that they had to work with very old equipement, fatigued and often discontinued parts. They salvaged and machined parts whenever possible and kept the planes flying despite the budget cuts. They really took their at heart and I have great admiration for those guys. In 2006 or 2007, I can't remember exactly, we had a Russian delegation visiting us and they were amazed at how we were still able to fly such old equipment and keep it 'airworthy'.
Q. How many hours did you and you colleagues fly per year?
A. Hahaha...good question. I'n not laughing because it's funny, I'm laughing because it's sad. Very sad. Five years prior to the revolution, we flew no more than 50 hours per year! And consider us lucky because before that we flew an average of 25 to 30 hours per year. It hurts when you know that an IAF pilot logs no less than 350 mandatory hours per year.
