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====Vietnam War==== {{Main|List of Vietnam War flying aces}} [[File:Capt. Richard S. Ritchie, in South Vietnam - 1972.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Capt. [[Richard Stephen Ritchie]], 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron, pictured beside the aircraft in which he became the first Air Force ace of the Vietnam War]] The [[Vietnam People's Air Force]] had begun development of its modern air-forces, primarily trained by Czechoslovak and Soviet trainers since 1956.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O88vDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT4|title=MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War|last=Toperczer|first=István|date=2017-09-21|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781472823571|language=en}}</ref> The outbreak of the largest sustained bombardment campaign in history prompted rapid deployment of the nascent air-force, and the first engagement of the war was in April 1965 at [[Thanh Hóa Bridge]] which saw relatively outdated subsonic [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]] units thrown against technically superior [[Republic F-105 Thunderchief|F-105 Thunderchief]] and [[Vought F-8 Crusader|F-8 Crusader]], damaging 1 F-8 and killing two F-105 jets.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O88vDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT4|title=MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War|last=Toperczer|first=István|date=2017-09-21|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781472823571|pages=4|language=en}}</ref> The MiG-17 generally did not have sophisticated radars and missiles and relied on dog-fighting and maneuverability to score kills on US aircraft.<ref name=":0"/> Since US aircraft heavily outnumbered North Vietnamese ones, the Warsaw Pact and others had begun arming North Vietnam with [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21|MiG-21]] jets.<ref name=":0"/> The VPAF had adopted a strategy of "guerrilla warfare in the sky" utilizing quick hit-and-run attacks against US targets, continually flying low and forcing faster, more heavily armed US jets to engage in dog-fighting where the MiG-17 and MiG-21 had superior maneuverability.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KrOhDAAAQBAJ|title=MiG-17/19 Aces of the Vietnam War|last=Toperczer|first=István|date=2016-10-20|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=9781472812575|language=en}}</ref> The VPAF had carried out the first air-raid on US ships since WW2, with two aces including [[Nguyễn Văn Bảy]] attacking US ships during the [[Battle of Đồng Hới]] in 1972. Quite often air-to-air losses of US fighter jets were re-attributed to [[surface-to-air missiles]], as it was considered "less embarrassing".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mikoyan MiG-21|last=E.|first=Gordon|date=2008|publisher=Midland|others=Dexter, Keith., Komissarov, Dmitriĭ (Dmitriĭ Sergeevich)|isbn=9781857802573|location=Hinckley|oclc=245555578}}</ref> By the war's end, the US had nevertheless confirmed 249 air-to-air US aircraft losses<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://myplace.frontier.com/~anneled/usloss.html|title=US Air-to-Air Losses in the Vietnam War|website=myplace.frontier.com|access-date=2018-06-19}}</ref> while the figures for North Vietnam are disputed, ranging from 195 North Vietnamese aircraft from US claims<ref>{{Cite book|title=Air warfare: an international encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=ABC-CLIO|editor=Boyne, Walter J. |isbn=978-1576073452|location=Santa Barbara, CA|pages=679|oclc=49225204}}</ref> to 131 from Soviet, North Vietnamese and allied records.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2015-03-15|title=Kafedra i klinika urologii pervogo sankt-peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo meditsinskogo universiteta im. akad. I. P. Pavlova: vchera, segodnya, zavtra|journal=Urologicheskie Vedomosti|volume=5|issue=1|pages=3|doi=10.17816/uroved513-6|issn=2225-9074|doi-access=}}</ref> American air-to-air combat during the Vietnam War generally matched intruding United States [[fighter-bomber]]s against radar-directed integrated North Vietnamese air defense systems. American [[McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II|F-4 Phantom II]], F-8 Crusader and F-105 fighter crews usually had to contend with [[surface-to-air missiles]], [[anti-aircraft artillery]], and machine gun fire before opposing fighters attacked them.{{citation needed|date = May 2014}} The long-running conflict produced 22 aces: 17 North Vietnamese pilots, two American pilots, three American weapon systems officers or WSOs (WSO is the USAF designation, one of the three was actually a US Naval aviator, with an equivalent job, but using the USN designation of Radar Intercept Officer or RIO).<ref>[http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories/usa-v1.html "Aces."] ''Safari Kovi''. Retrieved October 10, 2014.</ref>
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