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Hampered Falcons. The Red air force's second big deficiency is electronics. Gunsights on their best fighters are still World War II types, and their radar, based on U.S. lend-lease sets and captured Nazi equipment, is out of date. Production is slow, even though the entire Soviet electronics industry is geared for war and not for TV sets. There is only a thin screen of radar stations along Russia's borders. Facilities are lacking for training the necessary operators and maintenance men. In electronics, Russia is a long way behind the West. That is why at least one top U.S. planner predicts no war this year. Even the Golden Falcons of young Vasily Stalin are at a disadvantage without enough of the humming electronic tubes to lead them to a bomber overhead.
"The glorious Falcons of our Fatherland are invincible," says Vasily Stalin, and it is just possible that the boss's son believes this, if he is also able to believe his own boast that Soviet airmen bagged 75,000 of the 80,000 Nazi planes destroyed during World War II. Western air experts, looking over their intelligence from Russia, concede that Russia has fighters as good as any in the West, and a tactical air force second to none. Recognizing Russian weakness in bombers, and Russian inability to seal off its borders against U.S. air power, however, Western experts admit to being mighty respectful of Russian air power, but not hopelessly dejected by it.
*His older brother, Yakov Dzhugashvili, reportedly died in Germany during World War II. †The Russian progression in brass: major general, lieutenant general, colonel general, general, marshal. *Daring, brave, lively man. *The two: World War II aces Colonel Alexander Pokryshkin, 59 kills; Lieut. Colonel Ivan Kozhedub, 62 kills. Major Richard I. Bong, top U.S. ace, had 40 kills. *Now replaced in U.S. heavy bombers by improved sights, which cost $250,000 each v. an average $3,200 for the Norden.