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The Saudi F-15s’ controversial kills during Operation Desert Storm

by Till Daisd September 2, 2021

The two Mirage kills achieved by RSAF F-15s were very certainly motivated by a political direction meant to highlight an Arab country. Existing sources indicate that the F1s were shot down just minutes after being able to engage their objectives

Under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program Peace Sun, the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) ordered 16 F-15Ds and 46 F-15Cs (without some of the aircraft’s Tactical Electronic Warfare System components and sensitive radar modes). The purchase came after the Saudi monarchy made a concentrated effort to overcome a capability gap between the RSAF and the F-14 Tomcat aircraft of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF).

The U.S. administration had to take into account some very important political issues as a result of Peace Sun, not the least of which was how the sale was certain to be received by the ever-vigilant Israelis. The RSAF Eagles were downgraded to make them less effective, especially against avionics and weaponry produced in the United States, in order to reduce such tensions.

Nevertheless, in reaction to Operation Desert Shield in late 1990, 24 more jets were hurriedly delivered to the RSAF by U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) units.

According to Steve Davies in his book F-15C Eagle Units In Combat, on January 24, 1991, Capt. Ayehid Salah al-Shamrani, an F-15 pilot with No 13 Squadron, engaged and downed two Iraqi Air Force (IrAF) Mirage F1EQs, giving the RSAF its sole air-to-air victory during Operation Desert Storm. Although the details of the confrontation are vague, Davies was informed by American sources that Salah was pointed in the direction of the Mirages as soon as they were seen taking off and traveling toward coalition naval warships in the Persian Gulf.

According to reports, a USAF AWACS gave the RSAF Eagle strong vectors, but Salah supposedly found it difficult to accomplish the intercept. Salah was guided step-by-step into position behind the French-made fighters as time to get behind the Mirages, who were aiming their anti-ship Exocet missiles at the naval ships, was rapidly running out. The two AIM-9P Sidewinders he eventually used guided directly to their targets.

An F-15 Eagle aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force takes off during Operation Desert Shield.

As reported by Donald J. McCarthy, Jr. in his book “T he Raptors All F-15 and F-16 aerial combat victories,” after the engagement Salah commented during a media interview: “They started breaking in front of me, but it was too late. It was my day.”

One former F-15 pilot observed: “There are several very valid questions to ask about these kills. Firstly, why is the pilot of an aircraft designed to kill BVR doing a stern conversion to visual range without firing a shot? Secondly, where was his wingman during all this? Thirdly, he fired both missiles while they were still ‘caged’ if I remember correctly.”

According to Davies, it was routine procedure to “uncage” the seeker from the radar before firing since it allowed the pilot to confirm that the seeker was tracking the target. Within the fighter pilot community, it was considered a faux pas to “uncage.”

Unsurprisingly, during Desert Storm, RSAF F-15s were kept far from the “coalface,” flying what was known as “Goalie CAPs” for the remainder of the conflict. The RSAF Eagles were effectively placed in a position where they could not obstruct the efforts of the rest of the Coalition by “Goalie CAPs” that were deployed some distance below the Iraq/Saudi border.

The level of professionalism, skill, and pride among the RSAF is allegedly at best mediocre, despite one USAF pilot who did an exchange tour with them in the 1990s telling Davies that two specific Saudi F-15 pilots were the best Eagle pilots he had ever met.

It is almost clear that a political instruction intended to highlight an Arab nation was the driving force behind these two Mirage kills. The presence of nearby U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats, which were claimed to have been in an equally favorable position to engage the Mirages and could have done so more quickly and competently, is perhaps the strongest circumstantial evidence in favor of this theory.

According to the information that is currently available, the F1s were shot down just minutes after being able to engage their objectives.

The controversial kills scored by Saudi F-15s during Operation Desert Storm — An F-15 Eagle aircraft of the Royal Saudi Air Force takes off during Operation Desert Shield.

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Hans H. Deffner / U.S. Air Force

September 2, 2021 0 comment

History

The first bombs of Operation Desert Storm were dropped by F-117 Stealth Fighters

by Till Daisd September 2, 2021

written by Till Daisd

The F-117 lighted the bunker’s entrance and directed two Paveway II LGBs, each weighing 2,000 pounds, toward the intended target. The first one destroyed the door, and the second one entered and destroyed the bunker. Once more, the F-117 pilot struck his intended target square on

The Lockheed F-117 was created in response to a request from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) for an aircraft that could attack valuable targets without being seen by adversarial radar. By the 1970s, engineers were able to create an airplane with radar-avoiding or “stealth” characteristics because of new materials and methods. The F-117A, the first operational stealth aircraft in the world, was the outcome.

On June 18, 1981, the first F-117A took to the skies, and on October 1, 1983, the 4450th Tactical Group—later renamed the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing—attained initial operational capability. On December 19, 1989, two F-117As from the 37th TFW bombed military targets in Panama as part of Operation Just Cause.

Fireworks over Baghdad: when the F-117 stealth fighters dropped the first bombs of Operation Desert Storm — Ground crews service the F-117A aircraft of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing (37th TFW) on the flight line. The 37th TFW is preparing to deploy to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield.

The 415th and 416th squadrons of the 37th TFW relocated to a base in Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, and the F-117 saw action once more during that conflict.

Operation Desert Shield changed its name to Operation Desert Storm on January 16, 1991, and the biggest aerial bombardment in the annals of contemporary warfare followed. Over 1,000 sorties were carried out on the first night of bombing against targets in Iraq and Kuwait. That is equivalent to every sortie flown during D-Day of Normandy.

The F-117As of the 37th TFW were the first manned USAF aircraft to enter hostile Iraqi airspace, as described by Jim Goodall in his book F-117 Stealth In Action. “At approximately 0130 on 17 January, two squadrons of F-117As dropped approximately sixty 2,000 pound bombs on key Iraqi air defense, command and control facilities, ammunition bunkers, SCUD surface-to-surface missile bunkers, missile storage facilities, and the headquarters of the Iraqi Air Force,” he explains.

On January 20, 1991, Gen. Schwarzkopf, the commander of American and Allied forces in the Gulf, showed a media outlet an infrared film of F-117A striking important targets in Iraq. “One of the key targets that showed the capability of the F-117A was a view of a SCUD storage facility that had three air ducts on its roof, each approximately a meter in diameter. The main air duct was identified by the F-117A pilot and the laser cursor was locked on the center of the air duct. A 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb was released and entered the bunker through the air duct. The SCUD storage bunker was totally destroyed in a spectacular explosion,” explains Goodall.

An attack on an ammo bunker close to Baghdad was another noteworthy incident that was featured on CNN and other major television networks. “The F-117A illuminated the front door of the bunker and guided two 2,000-pound Paveway II LGBs into the target. The first blew down the door; the second one went inside and blew up the bunker. Again the F-117A pilot hit his target dead center,” says Goodall.

The most impressive attack, according to Gen. Kelly, Commander of Air Force Operations in Desert Storm, was made against “My counterpart’s headquarters in downtown Baghdad.” The video depicted a rectangular, ten-story structure. An elevator shaft was located in the middle of the roof. An F-117A flew straight above the structure, locking its laser on the elevator shaft and firing a BLU-109 deep penetration weapon. The bomb has a delayed-action fuse and a reinforced steel shell that can pierce up to six feet of concrete. It appeared to go some distance inside the structure before exploding after falling through the top of the elevator shaft. The building’s four walls were visible being blasted outward in the footage.

According to Col. Al Whitley, the F-117As flew 1,271 missions during the conflict, or around one percent of the 110,000 missions flown by the Allied Air Forces, with an 80% success rate. The F-117As were the only aircraft used in assaults on heavily fortified targets in and around Baghdad on the first night of the war, accounting for 31% of all targets struck during the first twenty-four hours of the conflict.

The first bomb of the conflict was dropped by an F-117A, which was hitting a communications hub in Baghdad.

On the night of Jan. 16, 1991 “the F-117A proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Ben Rich, of Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects, and this team of dedicated aerospace workers had built the most capable surgical strike aircraft in the story of modern warfare,” Goodall concludes.

The following video, which includes some clips of the F-117A raid on the Baghdad communications center, was shot on the first night of Operation Desert Storm.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

September 2, 2021 0 comment

History

The F-16 CCV: the Viper that could turn without banking

by Till Daisd August 31, 2021

written by Till Daisd

“Flying formation on the F-16 CCV aircraft was a terrifying experience since it could do flat turns which robbed the wingman of important visual cues such as bank angle,” Phil Oestricher, General Dynamics test pilot

The first YF-16 (#72-1567) was rebuilt in December 1975 to become the USAF Flight Dynamics Laboratory’s Control Configured Vehicle (CCV).

The flight control surfaces of the F-16 CCV must be “decoupled” in order for them to function independently. This strategy makes it possible to perform uncommon movements like turning the airplane without banking it. The capacity to move in one plane while not simultaneously moving in another was thought to provide a fighter with innovative tactical performance characteristics. The F-16 CCV design included 8 square foot canards positioned under the intake, canted at 30-degree angles from the fuselage, as Lou Drendel explains in his book F-16 Fighting Falcon In Action.

They may be adjusted in a range of +/- 25 degrees. Additionally fitted for the testing were a cockpit panel for selecting several operating modes, buttons on the control stick to activate these modes, and an additional flight computer to supplement the regular fly-by-wire control system’s digital computer. With the help of modifications to the flight control system, pilots are now able to change their flight paths laterally and vertically without using pitch or roll inputs, as well as turn at wing level without sideslip.

Other capabilities included direct lift, which improved precision climb and descent profiles, maneuver enhancement, which made the F-16 more responsive and less susceptible to gusts and turbulence, and the ability to point the nose up or down without power changes, or left or right while maintaining a constant track across the ground. By moving fuel from one tank to another, the fuel system was modified to allow the aircraft’s center of gravity to be adjusted.

A quick look at the F-16 CCV, the Viper that could turn without banking — YF-16 Nos. 1 and 2 parking with the first two full-scale development F-16s.

The flight test program was divided into four main stages, according to Drendel. Functional tests of the YF-16 in this configuration, an assessment of the various flight modes, operational applications that could be made with the CCV configuration, and relaxed stability experiments for which the canards were taken off were among them.

The fundamental airframe of the F-16 was built to endure side forces of up to 2G. The CCV configurations’ computers were programmed to support up to 0.9G. The lack of support for the pilot’s upper torso caused side pressures above 0.7G to be extremely exhausting for the pilots, which suggests that an aircraft built from the ground up to be a CCV would have some very radical features. Flying in formation with the CCV aircraft, according to General Dynamics test pilot Phil Oestricher, was a harrowing experience since the plane could make flat spins, depriving the wingman of crucial visual clues like bank angle.

On March 6, 1976, the CCV YF-16 made its first flight. The single setback to the flight test program, which ran from June 24, 1976, to June 30, 1977, was a rough landing that forced a delay in testing while repairs were made. After the CCV program’s effectiveness was determined, a more ambitious follow-up effort known as the “Advanced Fighter Technology Integration” (AFTI) F-16 was launched.

Photo by Lockheed Martin

August 31, 2021 0 comment

History

This is why the A-10 Warthog can’t be replaced by F-16 CAS variants

by Till Daisd August 31, 2021

written by Till Daisd

Due to the F-16’s severe vulnerability to ground fire down low during Desert Storm, the A-10 performed better in the CAS role

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) began work on the A-16, close air support (CAS) derivative of the basic F-16 armed with a 30 mm cannon and 7.62 mm Minigun pods, in the 1980s in an effort to replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II. A number of F-16A Block 15 aircraft were upgraded to this configuration and painted in the “European One” camouflage pattern. The A-16 was never produced because of a Congressional directive issued to the USAF on November 26, 1990, requiring it to keep two wings of A-10s. The type was to have been given the name “Block 60.”

The USAF decided to upgrade 400 Block 30/32 F-16s with new equipment to execute CAS and battlefield air interdiction (BAI) operations rather than upgrading the A-10 as the second result of that instruction. The F/A-16 project included innovative technology such as a digital terrain-mapping system, a GPS for better navigational and weapon delivery precision, and an Automatic Target Handoff System (ATHS) to enable direct digital target/mission data interchange between the pilot and ground forces. But in January 1992, this strategy was abandoned in favor of installing Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pods on Block 40/42 F-16C/D aircraft.

Here's why F-16's CAS variants failed to replace the A-10 Warthog

The 174th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW), a New York Air National Guard unit that switched from the A-10 in 1988, had 24 F-16A/B Block 10 aircraft that were equipped with the 30 mm GAU-13/A four-barrel variant of the seven-barrel GAU-8/A cannon in 1991. On the centerline station, this weapon was kept in a General Electric GPU-5/A Pave Claw gun pod and had 353 rounds of ammo. There were also plans to equip A-10s with the AN/AAS-35V Pave Penny laser spot tracker and convert F-16C aircraft to this configuration. Trials were put on hold after two days due to the gun’s considerable vibration, which made flying and targeting the aircraft challenging.

During Operation Desert Storm, when both aircraft were heavily employed in the conflict and significant data on their success rates in various types of missions was available, the A-10 vs F-16 argument was reignited. The Block 10 F-16 possessed the benefit of speed and full night capability, whereas the A-10 required the employment of flares to light up the battlefield or a second A-10, as recounted by Ken Neubeck in his book A-10 Warthog Mini In Action.

Nevertheless, despite these benefits, the F-16 performed worse than the A-10 in Desert Storm in the CAS role, largely because it was more open to ground fire down low. The F-16 was compelled to fly at higher altitudes because it lacked the A-10’s tough survival features. The Maverick missile and gun strafing capabilities of the A-10 were more precise than the F-16’s weaponry at higher altitudes. The F-16’s 30 mm gun pod attachment turned out to be unstable and inaccurate.

As Neubeck says “the war had proved conclusively that the modified F-16 cannot replace the A-10 Warthog and perform all aspects of the CAS mission. The A-10 was truly the only aircraft that was built solely for the CAS mission. Many experts feel that the results of the war show that the U.S. would do well to continue to have a mix of aircraft including the ‘air-to-mud’ types.”

The idea of replacing the A-10 with the F-16 was described by former Pentagon engineer Pierre Sprey, who worked on the F-16 and A-10 programs as “one of the most monumentally fraudulent ideas the Air Force has ever perpetrated.” As told by Neubeck, Mr. Sprey would later summarize the A-10’s war accomplishments in the September 1991 issue of the IEEE Spectrum (the magazine edited by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Sprey stated that “among the aircraft, the ‘low tech’ A-10 – much despised by the U.S. Air Force brass – was the real hero of the air war. Even though it represents only one-twelfth of the fighter force, it flew one-third of the sorties and accounted for two-thirds of the tank kills claimed during the air campaign and better than nine/tenths of the artillery kills. It dominated the interdiction campaigns against the roads. The aircraft proved tough enough to survive the anti-aircraft exposure and fire anti-tank Maverick missiles, while the F-16s, F-111s, and F-18s were just too vulnerable to ground guns to be usable in this role.”

Block 10 F/A-16s were eventually phased out as a result.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

August 31, 2021 0 comment

History

Video of Luftwaffe F-104 Starfighters in SATS and ZELL testings

by Till Daisd August 31, 2021

written by Till Daisd

While ZELL was a system where jet fighters and attack aircraft were planned to be mounted on sizable JATO rockets coupled to movable launch platforms, SATS was a test program for takeoff and landing on short runways

This post features a stunning video of German Air Force (Luftwaffe) F-104 Starfighter aircraft being tested for the Short Air Field for Tactical Support (SATS) and zero-length launch system or zero-length take-off system (ZLL, ZLTO, ZEL, ZELL) programs.

According to the video’s description, the ZELL system was designed to allow jet fighters and assault aircraft to be launched from mobile launch platforms using sizable JATO rockets. During the Cold War in the 1950s, the majority of zero-length launch experiments were conducted.

The SATS was a test program for short runway takeoff and landing that included a catapult, carrier deck-type arresting gear, and a runway with an aluminum surface made of interlocking lightweight metal alloy planking. Several hundred takeoffs and landings were successfully completed during the testing, which were conducted at the Naval Air Test Facility in Lakehurst, New Jersey, in the United States.

The main benefit of ZELL was the removal of the requirement for a vulnerable airstrip for takeoffs. Air forces might deploy efficient air defenses and unleash airstrikes in the case of an unexpected attack, even if their own airbases were destroyed. Although employing rocket boosters to launch airplanes proved to be reasonably trouble-free, a runway was still necessary if aircraft had to land at the same location. Bulky mobile launchers also proved to be expensive to run and challenging to move. Mobile launchers would have also raised security concerns, especially if they were accompanied by strike fighters carrying nuclear weapons.

ZELL tests were carried out by the Luftwaffe, the Soviet VVS, and the U.S. Air Force (USAF). An F-84G was the first manned aircraft to be ZELL-launched in 1955. ZELL was primarily of interest to the Soviet Union because it could be used to protect airfields and important targets with MiG-19 point defense systems. The larger F-100 Super Sabre and MiG-19/SM-30 “Farmer” tests (with the SM-30 using the Soviet-designed PRD-22R booster unit) used similar short-burn solid-fueled boost motors, of much more powerful 600 kN (135,000 lbs) thrust output. The American tests with the F-84s began with using the Martin MGM-1 Matador solid-fuel boost motor with about 240 kilonewtons (52,000 lbs) thrust output.

Due to logistical issues and the growing effectiveness of guided missiles, all work on ZELL aircraft was abandoned.

The development of aircraft with vertical (VTOL) or short (STOL) takeoff and landing capabilities was also driven by the need to field combat aircraft without relying on vulnerable landing strips. British Hawker Siddeley Harrier and Soviet Yakovlev Yak-38 are two examples of this.

Photo by San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives via Wikipedia

August 31, 2021 0 comment

History

Facts about the KC-135 Stratotanker from the Operation Desert Storm

by Till Daisd August 30, 2021

written by Till Daisd

“The KC-135 was the linchpin of the fight, without fuel, fighters are inoperable”

KC-135 Stratotankers responded to a new demand for assistance in 1990 during Operation Desert Shield, which started a 25-year period of continuous U.S. Air Force (USAF) contingencies.

The tankers needed to be maintained ready to go at a moment’s notice even if combat activities hadn’t started in earnest yet.

The preparation for the upcoming conflict was advancing. As the battle was set to start, things began to pick up about the middle of January. Operation Desert Storm started on January 17, 1991, just after midnight.

“Scud launches would create a flurry of activity, which would require KC-135 support,” said Lt. Col. Larry Dillon at the time KC-135 crewmember with 190th Air Refueling Wing (ARW). “Sometimes they would need 60 or more sorties before sunrise, and the next day the surge would occur in the late afternoon or evening. As a result, our aircrews had no schedule to live by. One day they would sleep days and fly nights, the next day vice versa.”

It would be like this for the next 38 days. It was a terrific pace to keep up.

During the conflict, the KC-135 crew known as “Balls 13” consisted of Lieutenant Col. Kevin Sweeney (pilot), Capt. Jay Selanders (co-pilot), Capt. Greg Mermis (navigator), and Senior Master Sgt. Steve Stucky (boom operator). After takeoff, they came upon jet spray (the turbulence behind a large aircraft). The tanker was suddenly pitched to one side, which caused both of its left-side engines to be torn off and provided very major control issues for the fully laden tanker. The truth is that nobody had ever run with this issue outside of a simulator.

Since there had never been a successful bailout from a KC-135, it required amazing skills and teamwork from the crew, and quite possibly their lives were on the line.

The pilots were under extreme pressure just trying to keep the tanker under control; in order to get it to take off, they had to manually move the tanker around. It was necessary to empty the fuel, map a course back to base, and, most importantly, lower the gear. Sgt. Stucky had to manually pump the gear down to do this. And after accomplishing that, the large tanker landed safely. For their actions that day, the crew members would each receive a Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

The KC-135s were initially deployed to ferry material, according to Stephen Yavornitzki, a former boom operator during the fight. However, the task soon required hours of aerial refueling support as well.

“The KC-135 was the linchpin of the fight,” said Yavornitzki. “Without fuel, fighters are inoperable.”

Refueling in the air for the boom operator and the rest of his team’s operations usually lasted three hours, during which the aircrew worked to maintain the airworthiness of aircraft like the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-111 Aardvark.

“We [refueled] them both pre and post-fight,” he said. “Once they would go and drop their ordinance, they would come back up, get their fuel and head back out to the fight.”

Key enemy radars, command centers, air defenses, and different airfields throughout the area were all successfully destroyed by USAF planes.

The KC-135s were busy keeping other aircraft in the air and enabling them to finish the mission, even if these operations were not directly caused by the tankers.

“The KC-135 was the workhorse, the backbone, of the fight,” said Yavornitzki.

Over the duration of the mission, tankers flew more than 4,900 sorties in 19,700 flight hours, according to Air Mobility Command (AMC). To 14,588 receivers, their crews offloaded more than 28.2 million gallons of fuel.

F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft of the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing, Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., is refueled by KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft during the second day of Operation Desert Storm.

Source: 60 YEARS IN THE AIR: KC-135 supports Gulf War contingencies by Senior Airman Tara Fadenrecht, 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs, and U.S. Air Force; Photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Robertson and Senior Airman Kia Atkins / U.S. Air Force; Tech. Sgt. Perry Heimer / Department of Defense

August 30, 2021 0 comment

History

Are 50 WWII Focke-Wulf Fw 190 planes interred in Turkey?

by Till Daisd August 30, 2021

written by Till Daisd

The United States demanded the destruction of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190s in order to sell Turkey its secondhand military aircraft

One of the best fighters flown by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during World War II, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, may have been buried in Turkey about 70 years ago.

According to a recent article by Hurriyetdailynews.com, since 1947, more than fifty Fw 190A-3 warplanes have been buried beneath the former airfield of the Kayseri Province, which is located in Central Anatolia.

Germany provided 72 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3s to Turkey as part of a barter agreement whereby Germany would send these fighters to modernize the Turkish Air Force in exchange for chromium and high-grade iron that Germany’s arms industry required.

The Fw 190A-3 export order was finished between July 1942 and March 1943. The paucity of spare parts forced the aircraft to be withdrawn in 1949, after which they were still in operation.

Instead, it was discovered through recently made public documents that the fighters were retired because the United States required the destruction of German Focke-Wulf Fw 190s before selling its old aircraft to Turkey. Therefore, fifty of them were flown to Kayseri airfield in 1947 to be buried and struck out from the inventory in order to prevent their destruction.

A statement made to HurriyetdailyNews.com by Turkish historian Uluhan Hasdal, who has been researching the subject for almost 25 years confirmed that: “The U.S. wanted to give its planes without charge. However, they had only one condition; the destruction of the German planes. Nearly fifty warplanes were brought to Kayseri Airport and were left outside the inventory. According to the documents, the planes were buried while wrapped in oily canvases.”

If the fifty Fw 190A-3s were discovered, this would be excellent news for any aviation enthusiast as all of the planes might still be in airworthy condition, as stated by Hasdal: “[German authorities] told me that the planes were resistant to corrosion and could fly if they are unearthed.”

Photo by U.S. Air Force

August 30, 2021 0 comment

History

The Foxbat vs Blackbird battle

by Till Daisd August 30, 2021

written by Till Daisd

SR-71s flew off the coast of Russia, “taunting and toying with MiG-25s sent up to intercept them, scooting up to altitudes the Soviet planes could not reach,” Viktor Belenko, former Soviet MiG-25 pilot

The MiG-25 (NATO reporting name “Foxbat”), an aircraft that seemed to be the deadliest fighter in the world, was made public by the USSR in the latter half of the 1960s. Any fighter in the air, as well as any military aircraft outside the SR-71 Blackbird, could not outrun this aircraft.

Foxbat Vs Blackbird: why the MiG-25 never posed a credible threat to the SR-71 Mach 3 spy plane

The threat posed by either the SR-71 or the B-70 Valkyrie has been attributed at various points to the creation of the MiG-25. The threat posed by the MiG-25 has also been cited as a reason for the cancellation of the Valkyrie, though this explanation is dubious given that the Foxbat wasn’t made public until 1967 and its capabilities weren’t made known until several years later. The new Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs), which posed a threat to the survivability of high-speed, high-altitude bombers, were a more plausible cause of the B-70’s cancellation. Nuclear-armed ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles), which are also less expensive, were also entering service. As a result, the pricey B-70 bomber program was abandoned in 1961 before any Valkyries were finished or sent into service.

However, Foxbat’s research and manufacture continued even after the B-70 was shelved. SR-71 Blackbird In Action author Lou Drendel argues that the Habu posed a considerably more serious danger because of its proven capacity to maintain cruise speeds greater than Mach 3 at altitudes more than 80,000 feet.

As mysterious as the Blackbird, the MiG-25 has sometimes been portrayed as invincible and other times as nearly prehistoric in its approach to high-speed and high-altitude flight.

“Naturally, it is to the advantage of the anti-military press to derogate the threat posed by the MiG-25,” says Drendel. “And they were quick to seize upon the fact that it does not approach the sophistication of the Blackbird, even though it was developed in the same time period.”

The MiG-25 employed titanium sparingly (mostly exclusively on the leading edges of the wings and tail), and its arc-welded surface did appear unappealing. Although its engines were strong, they did not have the same improved high-speed performance as the Blackbird due to their comparatively simple airframe.

“On the other hand, the pro-military press feels the need to enhance the threat posed by the MiG-25,” continues Drendel. “And may attach more significance to its design sophistication than is warranted. After all, without the spur of clear and imminent danger, the American People have shown a great deal of reluctance to invest in defense.”

However, until September 6, 1976, western experts lacked reliable information about Foxbat’s capabilities. Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, a Soviet MiG-25 pilot, successfully flew his Foxbat to Hakodate, Japan, on that day to enter the West. After his defection, the U.S. Government briefed him for five months and then hired him as a consultant for several years. Belenko had carried the MiG-25 pilot’s manual with him in hopes of helping American pilots assess and test the aircraft.

He argues that MiG-25 pilots were not allowed to surpass Mach 2.5 in MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko, his 1980 autobiography, and he maintains that the Foxbat could not safely exceed 2.8. When informed that MiG-25s were flying above Israel at Mach 3.2, he claimed that the engines had been entirely damaged and that the pilots were lucky to have survived the encounter.

In his autobiography Belenko says that SR-71s flew off the coast of Russia, “taunting and toying with MiG-25s sent up to intercept them, scooting up to altitudes the Soviet planes could not reach, and circling leisurely above them, or dashing off at speeds the Russians could not match.”

The Foxbat could fly up to 78,000 feet when equipped with two R-40 missiles (NATO reporting designation AA-6 “Acrid”), but only 68,900 feet when equipped with all four of its missiles. There was no chance of a tail-chase interception because the SR-71’s cruise speed was faster than the top speed of Acrid missiles, and it appears that the Foxbat’s radar and fire control system was not advanced enough to handle the challenges of a head-on intercept at closing speeds that would surpass Mach 5.

The MiG-31 Foxhound, the ultimate MiG-25 development that posed a real danger to the SR-71, later fixed the majority of these issues. In fact, according to Paul Crickmore’s book L ockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions, the super-fast Blackbird found it extremely difficult to enter Soviet airspace due to the MiG-31’s potent combination of high performance, passive electronic scanned array radar, digital datalink with other interceptors, and long-range missiles.

Photo by Dmitriy Pichugin and via Wikimedia and U.S. Air Force

August 30, 2021 0 comment

History

Awsome promotional video demonstrates the advanced skills of the F-14 Tomcat

by Till Daisd August 30, 2021

written by Till Daisd

The AWG-9, a powerful weapons system that was able to support the AIM-54 Phoenix’s unheard-of 100-mile range, was installed on the F-14 Tomcat

The stunning video in this post, titled One Of A Kind, was produced by Grumman to promote the F-14 fighter program. It demonstrates how the formidable Tomcat could operate autonomously in tactical situations with its state-of-the-art Phoenix missile weapon system.

Due to its prominent role in Top Gun, the storied Grumman F-14 is arguably the most well-known Navy fighter. The American teen-series aircraft debuted in that conflict, including the Tomcat as its first model and were built to simulate air battle with MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.

The design of what may be the most well-known fighter of the modern age was the consequence of a failed standardization effort.

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) launched a design competition for a new air superiority aircraft after a Navy variant of the F-111 failed to meet strict specifications for a carrier-based fighter.

The end product was the F-14 Tomcat, an engineering marvel with a distinctive variable-sweep wing.

Despite the F-14’s superior dogfighting abilities, the Tomcat stood out for its use in fleet air defense. The AWG-9, a powerful weapons system that could support the AIM-54 Phoenix, which had an unheard-of 100-mile range and a small onboard radar to direct the missile to the target during the last phase of flight, was installed on the aircraft to carry out this operation.

The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II was replaced by the F-14 in December 1970, and the F-14 made its maiden deployment in 1974 with the US Navy aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65). The F-14 served as the main platform for the U.S. Navy’s fleet defense interceptor, maritime air superiority fighter, and tactical reconnaissance operations. It started carrying out precise ground-attack sorties in the 1990s after adding the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod system.

Photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Steven King / U.S. Navy

August 30, 2021 0 comment

History

Amazing pic of the B-1A’s First Flight

by Till Daisd August 29, 2021

written by Till Daisd

The Rogers Dry Lake runways were accessible from the 70-minute, 250-mile flight path while the B-1A basic flight evaluation was being carried out

The amazing image in this post depicts the Rockwell International B-1A taking off for its inaugural flight from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California on December 23, 1974. The aircraft landed at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB).

Col. Charles Bock Jr., a veteran USAF pilot and test pilot for Rockwell, flew the B-1A. Col. Emil “Ted” Sturmthal, a B-1 Joint Test Force director and an Air Force pilot, and flight test engineer Richard Abrams were with him. The Rogers Dry Lake runways were accessible from the 70-minute, 250-mile flight path, which was used for the basic flight evaluation.

As a replacement for the B-52, the B-1A was first created in the 1970s. The development and testing of four prototypes of this long-range, high-speed (Mach 2.2), strategic bomber took place in the middle of the 1970s, but the program was discontinued in 1977 before it could be put into production. Through 1981, flight testing was still ongoing.

The Reagan government began the development of the B-1B in 1981 as an enhanced version. The main modifications included an additional structure to enhance payload by 74,000 pounds, a better radar, and an order-of-magnitude reduction in the radar cross-section (RCS). As a result of the considerable modifications made to the inlet as part of this RCS reduction, the maximum speed had to be lowered to Mach 1.2.

In October 1984, the first production B-1 took to the air, and in June 1985, the first B-1B arrived at Dyess AFB in Texas. On October 1, 1986, initial operational capability (IOC) was attained. May 2, 1988, saw the delivery of the last B-1B.

Nearly 50 world records for speed, payload, range, and time of climb in its class are held by the B-1B. The B-1B was honored by the National Aeronautic Association for successfully completing one of the top ten most memorable record flights in 1994. In 2004, the most recent records became legally binding.

Photo by Edwards History Office photo / U.S. Air Force

Source: U.S. Air Force

August 29, 2021 0 comment

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