Special thanks for this very interesting commentary.

Regarding ‘one-sided’: the outcome in air battles between Ethiopian F-5Es and Somali MiG-17s and MiG-21MFs (that was the version for which…

Special thanks for this very interesting commentary.

Regarding ‘one-sided’: the outcome in air battles between Ethiopian F-5Es and Somali MiG-17s and MiG-21MFs (that was the version for which Tom K asked, as cited in caption for the last photo) was as one-sided. 11:0.

Ethiopians did lose 3 F-5Es during the war, but none in air combats: one was destroyed by WSLF-insurgents on the ground (at Gode airfield) early during the war, two were shoot down by ground fire (one of these was flown by Lagesse Tefera, that’s how he ended as a POW in Somalia, late on afternoon of 1 September 1977).

Re. ‘all depends on how one is using the type in question’: I intend to continue this ‘mini-series’ with some examples from Iran-Iraq War. Roles during that conflict were the other way around: F-5Es were flown as fighter-bombers (i.e. ‘over the Indian country) and MiG-21MFs (and MiG-21bis’) were ‘defending’.

Finally, regarding Ethiopian MiG-21s: Ethiopia placed its first order for MiG-21bis’ already in June 1977, but its pilots were still undergoing conversion training in the USSR when Somalia invaded. No MiGs were delivered to Addis Ababa before November 1977.

Precisely that is one of points in this story: by that time (by the time Soviets launched their famous air bridge to Ethiopia) Ethiopian F-5Es have gained air superiority over Somali MiGs, and thus turned the tide in the war.

It was ‘just so’ that without Cuban, and then Soviet help, Ethiopian military would need much longer time to launch a counter-offensive and recover all of Ogaden. Whichever way one turns it, the air war, and thus (because Ethiopian Air Force was free to smash the Somali supply-system in Ogaden) the flow of the entire Ogaden War was decided already by 1 September 1977, i.e. months before any of Soviet aid reached Ethiopia.