IAF Aces

The fighter aces of the Israel Air Force are a small, select group. From 1967 to 1982, the IAF counts approximately 50 Mirage, Phantom and Viper pilots who have shot down five or more Arab aircraft. Seven IAF pilots have claimed 10 or more kills, and there are a few-perhaps five-who claim ace status in two aircraft. The last F-4mounted ace is an Israeli: Lt. Col. Ben-Ami Peri scored what for now is the last official kill (without confirmed data from the Iran/Iraq conflict) by an F-4 in June 1982 over Lebanon.

The only F-16 aces are Israelis. Now-retired Brig. Gen. Amir Nahumi downed four MiG-17s on his first combat mission in an F-4 on October 6, 1973. As the commander of a Viper squadron in 1981, he gained the first fixed-wing kill for the F-16 (a junior pilot had shot down a Syrian helicopter the day before) and later scored five more kills during 1982. He has six kills in the F-16 and eight in the F-4. Second-ranked IAF ace, retired Brig. Gen. Iftach Spector, scored 10 kills in the Mirage and five in the F-4.

A reserve major, who can only be identified with an initial, "M.," scored five kills in F-16s in 1982, and he may, in fact, be the last to achieve ace status in the world.

Then there is Giora Epstein, who, with 17 kills-one Mi-8 helicopter, and 16 MiGs and Sukhois (all Egyptian)-is perhaps the world's top jet-to-jet ace (recent revelations about the careers of Soviet MiG-15 pilots in Korea, although widely written about in the last few years, may be open to discussion). Having just retired, Epstein stood "alerts" in F-16s until his 60th birthday.

The IAF is unique in that it uses its large resource of older veterans, many of whom, although retired from active service, continue to instruct new generations of aviators.