A well known former U.S. fighter jet pilot recently analysed the dogfight video between Greek and Turkish pilots in the Central Aegean that occurred earlier this month, as reported by Greek City Times.
C.W. Lemoine says on his website that he joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve and flew the F-16 and accumulated one thousand hours including a combat tour in Iraq. He later transferred to the Navy Reserve where he flew F/A-18A+ Hornets for four years and currently flies the 737-800 for a legacy U.S. airline.
His YouTube account has garnered over 220,000 subscribers and 30 million views, and mostly focuses on content related to fighter jets, offering expert analysis and opinion.
Earlier this month, a dogfight took place in the Central Aegean at about the same time that two other Turkish F-16’s were harassing a Greek military helicopter that was transporting Greek Minister of National Defence Nikos Panagiotopoulos and General Konstantinos Floros around the islands of Oinousses and Agathonisi.
The footage of the dogfight shows the Turkish pilot, who was violating Greek airspace, making a desperate attempt to escape by erratically maneuvering. However, the Greek pilot of the Mirage puts the Turkish F-16 in shooting parameters and locks the opponent.
So what did C.W. Lemoine say about the dogfight?
While watching the video, Lemoine said "jink" for each time the Greek Mirage could have shot down the Turkish jet when he should have suddenly changed direction, prompting him to say "Oh no... making Viper pilots look bad," in reference to the Turkish pilot.
At the end of the first viewing of the video, he said "Oh boy... And that's the end of that tragic, tragic video" in reference to how badly the Turkish pilot of the F-16 performed.
During the second viewing of the video and commenting on it, he said "The [Turkish] F-16 is not performing very well right now. He's not doing a very good job of redefining the fight and getting it back in his own game plan," adding "the airplane is just a pig," in reference to how exposed the Turkish pilot is to the Greek war jet.
Towards the end of the viewing, when speaking about the Greek pilot, Lemoine said "And here you see this dude is just completing owning him."
In conclusion, the fighter jet expert said "Good on the Hellenic Air Force pilot, he basically converted high to low, and owned him."
He added that the Turkish pilot is "making my Viper look bad" and that "it's just embarrassing."
Watch Lemoine's full analysis below.
For those who follow these events, the video is unsurprising considering that Greek pilots win in consecutive years the "Best Warrior" in aviation games participated in by NATO pilots.
Turkey, who has always had a mediocre pilots, had its Air Force furthered devastated when it orchestrated but failed in its coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2016. In response to the coup, Erdoğan purged the Air Force and forced into retirement or jailed many pilots.
In 2019, Turkey violated Greek airspace 4,811 times that resulted in 383 mock dogfights, in which Greek pilots won on nearly every single occasion. The Greek Air Force very rarely releases such footage and likely did so this time to embarrass the Turkish Air Force internationally after a pair of their F-16's stalked a helicopter Greek Defence Minister and General Floros.
Although Turkey says the airspace and maritime space in the Eastern Aegean is "disputed," it is internationally recognised as Greek areas.
