View Full Version : Iraqi airforce performance
kangaroota
10th Apr 2003, 17:33
Haven't heard too much, if anything, about the Iraqi Air Force since the action began.
Did they manage to get anything airborne? If so, did they get any results? Or were all their aircraft destroyed on the ground?
sprucemoose
10th Apr 2003, 18:05
Not heard of any AF movements at all, and US troops steamed into a lot of bases unopposed early in the conflict. A few gate guardians etc appear to have been taken out, but not seen any footage of strikes against anything above a MiG-23 on the edge of a cemetery. No sign of Saddam's "death drones" either.
Makes you wonder why Patriots are shooting down coalition aircraft, doesn't it?
teeteringhead
10th Apr 2003, 20:19
Didn't the septics take out some Lightning gate guardians in the last lot - thinking they were MiGs??:D
OutsideLookingIn
10th Apr 2003, 20:38
There was some USAF video shown in the first week of a "surgical strike" on an IAF base, looked like Mig23s being taken out, three or four in short order.
Oh, and someone else posted that their historic collection was pinged too!
Apollo101
11th Apr 2003, 07:49
I think they also included the airline A/C at Baghdad Airport. Acouple of 727's , only tales left, and a couple of Illusion 62's.
(spelling a bit off)
Boy_From_Brazil
12th Apr 2003, 03:48
The New York Times has been reporting that a number of aircraft have been buried by the Iraqis. A few others of various types have been discovered up in the Kurdish areas covered with camouflage netting.
Woff1965
13th Apr 2003, 23:35
I read on another thread that the Iraqi's only known sortie occured on day 2 when a pair of MiG 25's stooged around over Baghdad for 20 mins before departing North at speed never to be seen again.
The report was a third hand affair and I cannot vouch for its accuracy,
mutleyfour
14th Apr 2003, 00:33
You'd have to be completely insane...or maybe a relative of comical ally to launch into the skies in anything iraqi........sure fire route to heaven.
There were 5 or 6 BK117 'gunships' found by the 101st yesterday. All under camnets and nice cammo paint job. Blown up by their engineers. Shame really, they might have been the next warspoil A109s. Anyone know when they bought the 117s?
sprucemoose
14th Apr 2003, 16:21
About 15 received from '88, not sure how many they had before the 101st got their hands on them.
AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar, April 18 (Reuters) - Australian special forces have found 51 Mig fighter planes hidden at an airfield in western Iraq, a senior Australian officer said on Friday.
Lieutenant Colonel Mark Elliott said some of the planes had been buried or covered over with dirt while others were hidden in buildings or under camouflage netting. "To date we've found 51 aircraft, various types of Migs," Elliott told Reuters at war headquarters in Qatar.
A Photograph (http://www.iraqwar.ru/article_image.php?id=3390) of the operation conducted over the past two days showed one plane under a net parked in a grove of palm trees. Another showed special forces uncovering small weapons on the base.
"The base was relatively abandoned. There was a little bit of resistance on the way in but that was dealt with relatively quickly," Elliott said. "Once our lads returned fire they scampered." He said the newest of the planes found appeared to date from the mid-1980s.
The Iraqi air force played no part in the war during which U.S. and British planes dominated the skies from the start. The latest finds show Iraq did have planes available. Last Saturday Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said U.S.-led forces had found 15 fixed-wing fighter aircraft beneath camouflage at Al Asad airfield northwest of Baghdad. Brooks said they appeared to be "in undamaged condition".