Osprey - Duel 050 - F-86 Sabre vs MiG-15. Korea 1950-53.pdf

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F-86 SABRE
MiG-15
Korea 1950–53
DOUGLAS C. DILDY & WARREN E. THOMPSON
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
F-86 SABRE
MiG-15
Korea 1950–53
DOUGLAS C. DILDY & WARREN E. THOMPSON
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
 
Introduction
Chronology
Design and Development
Technical Specifications
The Strategic Situation
The Combatants
Combat
Statistics and Analysis
Aftermath
Further Reading
Index
4
6
8
20
30
37
48
71
75
78
80
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
INTRODUCTION
The history of the Korean War is actually the story of two conflicts. On the national
level it was a war between two halves of one people, arbitrarily separated by powers
much greater than themselves, fighting for the reunification of their land – hence the
northern Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) invasion of the southern
Republic of Korea (ROK) beginning June 25, 1950.
At the regional level it was a campaign between the US-led coalition of western
democracies fighting under the banner of the United Nations (UN) and the
Communist partnership of the USSR and the newly-formed (in December 1949)
People’s Republic of China (PRC). Once the DPRK’s Korean People’s Army (KPA)
was forcibly ejected from South Korea by UN Command (UNC) forces, the PRC
became primarily responsible for their side’s ground operations, while the USSR –
because the PRC’s neophyte air force was not yet prepared for combat – provided
air cover.
This contest, pitting three Communist countries against the US-led UNC, was
fought – bitterly, but with limited local objectives by both sides – within the global
context of the Cold War, an ideological struggle that was just getting into its stride
following the Berlin Crisis, the formation of NATO and the utter defeat of the
Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) during the previous two years.
From the time that the North Korean People’s Air Force (KPAF) had been swept
from the skies, the US’s Far East Air Forces (FEAF, pronounced like “leaf ”, and later
retitled the Pacific Air Forces or PACAF) maintained almost absolute air supremacy
over the front. Behind the Communist lines, however, the issue was not so clearly
decided – at least not at that time. This northwest corner of North Korea between the
Chongchon River and the Yalu, from the shores of Korea Bay to the central highlands,
was the arena for an aerial contest unique in the annals of air warfare.
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The NAA XP-86 prototype in
flight. (Duncan Curtis)
Within this volume of airspace (from the surface to almost 50,000ft (15,240m)),
especially at the upper reaches of it, for two-and-a-half years a battle raged almost
exclusively between two specific antagonists – no other fighter aircraft from either side
could fly there, much less fight there. The two antagonists were, on the UN side,
the  new jet-powered, swept-wing North American Aviation (NAA) F-86 Sabre,
and on the Communist side, their premier swept-wing jet fighter, the Mikoyan and
Gurevich (MiG) 15.
The mission of the Soviet-built (and initially Russian-flown) MiG-15 was to guard
the vital bridges spanning the wide Yalu River, the critical Supung hydro-electric
powerplant up-river and the KPAF air bases between the Yalu and Pyongyang. The
American F-86s were to protect the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers and a host of
fighter-bombers attempting to destroy those targets. But even when such interdiction,
strategic strike and airfield attack missions were not being flown, the Sabres regularly
cruised into this aerial arena and frequently the MiG-15s launched to challenge them
in battles totally isolated from the rest of the conflict.
Here, the best from both sides sparred and duelled, fought and killed – or died – in
an arena almost completely detached from the World War I-like trench warfare far
below to the south, and even from the results of the war as a whole. It was a battle much
more for the prestige of the nations engaged – and the reputation of their respective
aerospace industries – and for the glory of the fighter pilots involved than for its effect
on the conduct or the outcome of the conflict.
Due to the duels’ almost laboratory-like uniqueness and detachment, 60 years later
we are able to effectively and conclusively examine and evaluate the two combatants
– the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15 – on both their individual and relative merits, and
most importantly on their performance, and the performance of the men flying them,
in mortal combat against one another.
Victory in an aerial battle is the culmination and consequence of a series of factors
– the nature of the contest and the environment in which it is fought, the relative
performance qualities of the competing aircraft and, most importantly, the training,
experience and attitudes of the fighter pilots themselves. This book will examine all
of those, and more. It will assess their relative merits, and their success or lack of it,
based on the results of this combination of factors as it played out in the crucible of
life-and-death combat, a crucible ensconced in the northwest corner of Korea known
to the American Sabre pilots – and now to history – as “MiG Alley”.
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