Just wondering what had been dropped/jetisoned of the inboard pylons?

In one of the photos, it does appear that something WAS on the inboard pod with that tightening device still in place.

:ok:I would imagine the jettisoned stores would be a bomb of some sort, as the dangling bomb ring at the rear of the inboard pylon would normally be connected to the aft fuse on said bomb.

Reports of Libyan Naval vessels in Malta.

LIBYA: Warship defects to Malta | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times

February 22, 2011 | 7:03 pm
A Libyan warship arrived in Malta on Tuesday after its crew refused to carry out orders to bomb Benghazi, the satellite network Al Jazeera reported.
A second Libyan ship has also reportedly been sighted in the area, the network reported.

TJ

Malta will be putting up the Full House signs soon!

And who/what were they jettisoned on?

I wonder if we'll find that the large scale air attacks on cities turn out to be a repeat of the weapons of mass destruction/mobile chemical weapons labs story spun by the lone Iraqi deserter... sorry, dissident that sent the US to war in 2003 and now admitted by the man who told them to be a pack of lies.

What better yarn to spin for some military man, possibly - probably - with quite a chequered past, wanting the magic ticket to guaranteed asylum in the West.

A report in R&N says Benghazi airport runways have been destroyed, so maybe thats where whatever was on the inboard pylons was dropped/jettisoned.

LIBYA: Maltese 'selling' Libyan fighter jets | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times



:}:}:ok::ok: Almost as bad as OUR Government :mad:

Would you care to apologise?

HMS Cumberland is rather less of a show of force even.

Perhaps if she took in tow the three type 42's that are on Edisposal and sailed line astern up and down the coast you would have a force multiplier without the added cost, it would also partially deliver them to the Scrappies in Turkey who no doubt will buy them afterwards :p

The British Government in a bid to enhance their credibility could then announce that they were sending three additional Type 42 Destroyers, HMS Exeter, HMS Southampton and HMS Nottingham to join HMS Cumberland, and the SUN/Daily Mirror would run all the "Our Boys" go to the rescue stories without checking their facts first, and unless Gaddafi reads Edisposal or here, he would be totally unaware of our cunning plan. :p

Armed Forces of Malta - AFM have issued a statement saying no Libyan ships have defected, none have berthed in Malta - and the Government is not monitoring any Libyan Ships.

AFM deny media reports on arrival of Libyan naval vessels - Gozo News.Com

A second source states there is activity South of Malta involving Italian Naval ships.

timesofmalta.com - AFM denies Libyan warships arrival reports

Breaking News:

Libyan newspaper reports air force plane crashed near Benghazi after its crew refused to bomb city and bailed out, from Reuters

Just saw that in CNN World news - reporting a Su-22 crew bailed out rather than perform orders to bomb the city of Benghazi.

Aircraft crashed west of the city of Ijdabiya, 160 km (100 miles) southwest of Benghazi,

I think legally the Maltese will have to return them sometime

Pity as they are building up quite a nice little air force at no cost to the taxpayer..............

The French are probably already there offering them spares

Ajdabiya is 143km (80nm) due south of Benghazi and 422 SE of Malta. That is inside the range of an Su-22 but it depends on their nav kit if they wanted to risk such a long crossing. Also after the previous defection they may have been under-fuelled.

There is a 4000 ft strip there which looks to be a sand runway.

Benghazi looks interesting. The HAS site appears unused although each appears to have a fence around the front of each HAS. The concrete is pristine except where there is a number of wheel tracks where vehicles appear to have been doing high-speed turns. The main apron OTOH appears to have 5 Fencer but there are also some 7 ac that look like Transall. The Su-24 look interesting as Wikipedia says they have 4, one lost in a fire.

The Google imagery is 2009. Interestingly the 2004 imagery shows the same number of transports in exactly the same spots. There are no fences (or wheel marks) around the HAS in 2004.

edited to add:

Given that Gaddaffi control is in the west of the country it is possible the Fitter was launched from Tripoli. The crash site was about 360nm from Tripoli and Benghazi is also 360nm from Tripoli. It would suggest that they had insufficient fuel to fly to Benghazi and then Malta. Maybe they banged out near their home city.

Whatever did happen to the Iraqi air force that defected to Iran...

They are G-222's in the Google Earth overhead.

No, I'm not a spotter: Air Force Equipment

WW, thank you.

As for the ex-Iraqi Air Force, I believe it was finders keepers.

When the US EP3A landed in China the PDRC duly returned it. Similarliy when the Firebar landed in West Berlin we also returned it.

I thought most of the SU-22s were single seat. Could it have been one of the old Tu-22s with pilot and copilot?