How many MIG-21 Ace's did North Vietnam have?
The VPAF destroyed 91 American aircraft in air to air combat in the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese claim they had 16 aces Top Vietnamese Aces Kills (*) Comments UnitPlane Nguyen Van Coc 9 (7) 2 F-4Ds, 1 F-4B, 2 F-105Fs, 1 F-105D and 1 F-102A 921 FR MiG-21PF Nguyen Hong Nhi 8 (3) 1 UAV, 1 F-4D, 1 F-105D. Downed once 921 FR MiG-21 Pham Thanh Ngan 8 (1) 1 RF-101C 921 FR MiG-21F-13 Mai Van Cuong 8 (?) - 921 FR MiG-21 Dang Ngoc Ngu 7 (1) 1 F-4C on May 22 1967 921 FR MiG-21 Nguyen Van Bay 7 (5) 2 F-8s, 1 F-4B, 1 A-4C and 1 F-105D 923 FR MiG-17F Nguyen Doc Soat 6 (5) 3 F-4Es, 1 F-4J, 1 A-7B 927 FR MiG-21PFM Nguyen Ngoc Do 6 (2) 1 F-105F, 1 RF-101C 921 FR MiG-21 Nguyen Nhat Chieu 6 (2) 1 F-4 (w/MiG-17), 1 F-105D 921 FR MiG-17 & MiG-21 Vu Ngoc Dinh 6 (5) 3 F-105Ds, 1 F-4D, 1 HH-53C 921 FR MiG-21 Le Thanh Dao 6 (2) 1 F-4D, 1 F-4J 927 FR MiG-21PFM Nguyen Danh Kinh 6 (3) 1 F-105D, 1 EB-66C, 1 UAV 921 FR MiG-21 Nguyen Tien Sam 6 (1) 1 F-4E 927 FR MiG-21PFM Le Hai 6 (2) 1 F-4C, 1 F-4B 923 FR MiG-17F Luu Huy Chao 6 (1) 1 RC-47 606 ACS 923 FR MiG-17F Nguyen Van Nghia 5 (1) - 927 FR MiG-21PFM (*) The number in parenthesis indicate how many of the claims match with US losses reported so far. As you can see the number of kills claimed by these pilots exceeds 91 aircraft which is the number confirmed by American forces during the Vietnam War. The kills claimed by the VPAF are obviously exaggerated in this list. If in fact the VPAF had as many aces as they claim many of these kills had to have been AQM-34 unmanned aerial vehicles, as many were indeed lost in aerial combat. As far as manned aircraft losses go if the VPAF even had as many as 10 aces then these would have had to have been the only VPAF pilots to score victories at all, because any more aces would have put the losses over 91, which would be over the number of actual losses suffered by the US. We will never know exactly how many aces the VPAF had, if any. But if in fact the VPAF had several aces, in order to not exceed the actual number of losses, and not state that only 10 pilots scored aerial victories, then there is no way that the North Vietnamese had any more than 5 aces at the most.
