air combat maneuvering f14 vs russian fighters

#Air combat maneuvering f14 vs russian fighters archive#

Eight F-15 Eagles flew alongside the F-16s to maintain air superiority (engage any enemy fighters), eight more F-4G Wild Weasels were tasked with taking out air defense systems, and two EF-111 Raven electronic warfare aircraft would jam enemy radar while the Wild Weasels hunted them down. Air Force was coming in force.Ī whopping 72 F-16 Fighting Falcons, each equipped with two 2,000-pound Mk 84 bombs would make up the main body of the strike force, tasked with leveling government targets and Tawaitha nuclear reactor just south of the city. Thanks to a vast array of overlapping air defense systems and anti-aircraft artillery, supplemented by both radar-guided and optical surface-to-air missiles, the capital of Iraq had only seen airstrikes from the stealth F-117 Nighthawk in the first two days of the fighting, but on day three, the U.S. Related: Exploring the claims that America’s TR-3A UFO fought in Desert Storm The largest F-16 strike in history (U.S. However, sending in the Wild Weasels ahead of airstrike packages wasn’t always feasible, and even when it was, the nature of combat operations would sometimes force pilots to divert from their intended flight plan–and fly right into Iraqi defenses eagerly awaiting an opportunity to shoot down an American aircraft. These stealth-less aircraft would fly into enemy airspace and identify Iraqi air defense systems as they came online, often deploying anti-radiation missiles like the AGM-88 HARM to sniff out and destroy their radar arrays.

The F-4G was a purpose-built iteration of the Phantom for this role, but the job was still incredibly dangerous. With more than 16,000 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) in Iraq’s arsenal and America’s fleet of stealth F-117 Nighthawks reserved for only specific mission sets, it was largely up to American F-4s to hunt down and take out SAM sites in what are commonly referred to as “Wild Weasel” missions.

Keen to handily defeat his opponent, the American general began the Gulf War in the skies, with five straight weeks of airstrikes and combat patrols bolstered by naval bombardments that were meant to crush Iraq’s sizeable collection of air defense assets, neuter the Iraqi Navy’s ability to deploy forces by sea, and pave the way for the ground troops and heavy armor that were soon to follow. On the eve of the first day of the air campaign in Iraq, General Norman Schwarzkopf’s coalition had a whopping 2,430 military aircraft at its disposal. While this is an often-ignored aspect of the conflict, this massive coordinated display of airpower was an incredible undertaking in itself, requiring close coordination between military forces and their respective nations. Air Force photo)įor months leading up to the first day of the conflict, Coalition aircraft would fly in huge groups near the Iraqi border, ensuring that when the actual campaign began, massing formations of aircraft wouldn’t serve as notice to the Iraqi military. F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft of the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing line an airfield during Operation Desert Shield. It may be fair to say that the Coalition Force’s victory was a foregone conclusion as the Gulf War began, but the tactical and strategic domination of the Iraqi forces was not.

Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, may have been one of the most heavily defended cities on the planet when Coalition aircraft first screamed across Iraq’s border on 17 January 1991. While there’s no question that the Iraqi military was outclassed in every appreciable way by the massive force fielded against it, Iraq was not without serious and sizeable defenses. As a result, it’s easy to forget just how massive, intricate, and logistically challenging the Coalition’s speedy victory over Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime really was.

#Air combat maneuvering f14 vs russian fighters archive#

Air Force archive photo)įrom our vantage point some 30 years later, Desert Storm seems like little more than an appetizer for future conflicts in Iraq, and as such, it tends to garner less attention than more recent (and ongoing) conflicts in the Middle East. An intricate ballet of destructive capacity F-16A Fighting Falcon, F-15C Eagle and F-15E Strike Eagle fighter aircraft fly over burning oil field sites in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. Although today we often dismiss Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi military as hopelessly outmatched in this fight, footage captured from inside the aircraft offers a unique insight into the life or death struggle fighter pilots actually faced in the skies over Iraq. During the opening days of Operation Desert Storm, one American F-16 pilot overcame incredible odds by dodging not just one surface-to-air missile fired at him, but six in a row - and all without the benefit of flares or chaff to help.