Contrary to popular accounts in U.S. text, Nguyễn Nhật Chiêu preferred flying the MiG-21 into combat over the MiG-17, stating that: "for me personally, I preferred the MiG-21 because it was superior in all aspects of climb, speed and armament. The Atoll missile was very accurate and I scored four kills with the Atoll... in general combat conditions I was always confident of a kill over anF-4 Phantom when flying a MiG-21."[2][3]
The following kills are officially acknowledged and credited to him by the VPAF:[4][5][6]
^Toperczer, 2015, pp. 52. The standard pair of MiG-21s was more successful in combat at the time when fitted with a mix of infra-red guided R-3S AAMs carried by the flight leader and UB-16-57 rocket pods with unguided S-5M air-to-air missiles carried by the wingman... on 7 July 1966, a dissimilar pair of MiG-21s scrambled from the 921st Fighter Regiment on CAP duty over Noi Bai against incoming USAF F-105D Thunderchiefs... repeated salvos of rockets from Tran Ngoc Siu's MiG-21 destroyed Capt. Tomes' F-105D, however Nguyen Ngat Chieu was unable to lock his R-3S AAMs against another F-105D making energetic evasive manuevers... this was basically the first aerial victory by a MiG-21 over piloted American aircraft.
