The famous DS dog fight F-15s Vs MiG-29s Iraqi perspective

Cold war, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm - up to and including for example the A-10, F-15, Mirage 200, MiG-29, and F-18.
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by oldiaf » 12 Sep 2015, 21:07

On Jan 19 1991 the Iraqi AF mounted an intercept mission with 2 MiG-29s to shoot down E-3 AWACS aircraft and as a result engaged by US F-15Cs ... The story is documented by western media but No one heard the Iraqi story ... The US version claims 2 MiG-29 were downed while the Iraqis claims only one ... This is the story according to Iraqi pilots..
Part I
Captain Qasim Khalaf Hamad - Squadron 39 - Alwaleed / H3 AB
The third day of the war started with Fog and scattered clouds with poor visibility in the early hours of the morning ... Black smoke mixed with fog ... Smell of explosives and bombs cover all the aircraft shelters with unprecedented silence !!
But inside the base shelters the squadron members were working with all their will to detect targets and to make the right decisions for intercept.
The air defense sector had notified us that there is a formation of 4 RAF Tornados approaching the base probably carrying anti-runway bombs .... And there is another formation of 4 F-15C with an AWACS aircrafts probably providing top air cover for them ..
Captain Jameel Sayhood and Captain Alaa Abdul Aljabbar were on standby alert in case the Tornados headed to our base ... I was on standby also as No.2 with my formation leader Major Qutaiba Saeed .... But the Air defense sector ordered us to try to attack the AWACS aircraft which is very important target and we might have a good apportunity because the F-15Cs might be busy protecting the British Tornados which may leave a small chance for us to sneak undetected toward the AWACS but in case the F-15Cs were vectored toward us we had to break the engagement and return to base because 4vs2 is bad sitiuation for us ...
We took off at 1145 Jan 19 1991 and soon we reached 10,000 feet , the GCI directed us toward the US formation and to my suprise no one engaged us ... I switched ON my radar and prepared R-27R missile and locked the target the Target was in my range and I fired but the Lock was broken !!!! Definitely it was powerful ECM .... The GCI by this time had notified Major Qutaiba Saeed that 2 F-15Cs are turning toward us ... So the he ordered me to break the engagement as there is no use to continue the attempt .... But I was determined for one last try ... I repeated my attempt again but the lock was broken also ... So I decided to head back to base with only 2 heat seeking missiles remained on board .. By this time I was alone as my formation leader Major Qutaiba Saeed had left and his aircraft was carring the French Remora ECM while my aircraft hadn't ....
But before I turned the 2 F-15Cs already reached me and we were in the merge .... One passed to the right and one to the left and I saw the sun reflection over the glass of their canopy .... I turned my head to the Right and noticed one of them is trying to put me in his direct sight while the other has seperated from the formation and headed high .... I pulled very hard turn 9.5 G for 3-4 seconds and become behind one of them ... I tried to prepare R-60M heat seeking missile but my SPO-15 notified me of I am being locked from 6 o'clock !! I pulled to up left then rolled down right ... Both of them moved left while I continued right toward H3 at 8,000 feet.
By this time Captain Jameel Sayhood joined the fight - who already shut downed a British Tornado ... His aircraft was carrying Remora ECM and we headed again toward the F-15C this time at 5,000 feet ... The F-15C turned again to face us and suddenly my SPO-15 warned me of incoming missile ... Probably an AIM-7 .. I pulled hard and evaded the missile then under less than 1Km I saw another missile probably AIM-9 so I pulled hard again and dropped flares and evaded the missile ... By this time I was head to head with one of the F-15C so I pulled right and he pulled the other way .. By this time the other F-15C had fired two missiles toward Captain Jameel Sayhood aircraft he managed to evade one of them but hit by the other and he ejected ...
I pulled again up and then down right 30 degrees and I break the sound barrier at very low altitude and reached the base with my fuel almost reached zero .... I landed at the base directly without turning around it ( I landed on the opposite site of the runway because not enough fuel for proper landing )..
I was not shut downed or hit the ground as the American claimed ... It probably the breaking of the sound barrier at low altitude and my disappearance from their radar due to ground clutter that made them think I was crashed to the ground ... And It was Captain Jameel Sayhood who was hit by the missile but I don't know why they Thought the opposite and mixed between us ... It had been over two decades since the engagement and I still lament my self for not able to shut down one of these F-15C.
Last edited by oldiaf on 13 Sep 2015, 20:53, edited 2 times in total.


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by mixelflick » 13 Sep 2015, 11:33

Wow, that was YOU? Sure sounds like it..

The Mig-29 sure sounds like a worthy opponent, but you were outclassed in the ECM environment? Amazing to hear how many missiles you avoided. Sparrow and sidewinders...


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by milos984 » 14 Sep 2015, 10:45

Hi, I am new here, but i am watching this forum for some time.
mixelflick wrote:The Mig-29 sure sounds like a worthy opponent, but you were outclassed in the ECM environment? Amazing to hear how many missiles you avoided. Sparrow and sidewinders...

The MiG-29 question: As we (Slovak AF) still have MiG´s in service I can add some infos.
Even "older" MiG-29 is dangerous oponent in classic dogfight, like 1 vs. 1. During warious exercizes (like recent MACE XIV, at Sliac AFB) there were mock dogfights with a lot of NATO aircrafts and with well prepared pilot, MiG-29 could outmaneuver such planes like Mirage 2000 (French), JAS-39C Gripen (Czech) or F-16A/Mlu (Belgian or Netherland, IIRC).
What is porblem is that NATO or say US forces have considerable ECM & EW superiority ower lone MiG-29.


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by oldiaf » 14 Sep 2015, 10:53

milos984 wrote:Hi, I am new here, but i am watching this forum for some time.
mixelflick wrote:The Mig-29 sure sounds like a worthy opponent, but you were outclassed in the ECM environment? Amazing to hear how many missiles you avoided. Sparrow and sidewinders...

The MiG-29 question: As we (Slovak AF) still have MiG´s in service I can add some infos.
Even "older" MiG-29 is dangerous oponent in classic dogfight, like 1 vs. 1. During warious exercizes (like recent MACE XIV, at Sliac AFB) there were mock dogfights with a lot of NATO aircrafts and with well prepared pilot, MiG-29 could outmaneuver such planes like Mirage 2000 (French), JAS-39C Gripen (Czech) or F-16A/Mlu (Belgian or Netherland, IIRC).
What is porblem is that NATO or say US forces have considerable ECM & EW superiority ower lone MiG-29.

The Iraqi AF had version 9.12A and 9.12B ... At time of DS there were 32 9.12A and 7 9.12B plus 4 UB trainers ... But only 29 of the A version were combat ready ... The others ( 10 ) were kept in reserve or modified for tanker purpose ... These Iraqi AF put French Remora ECM pods on them albeit without that success obviously .
I believe the Slovak AF still operates 6 MiG-29s ? What version ?


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by milos984 » 14 Sep 2015, 13:06

oldiaf wrote:The Iraqi AF had version 9.12A and 9.12B ... At time of DS there were 32 9.12A and 7 9.12B plus 4 UB trainers ... But only 29 of the A version were combat ready ... The others ( 10 ) were kept in reserve or modified for tanker purpose ... These Iraqi AF put French Remora ECM pods on them albeit without that success obviously .
I believe the Slovak AF still operates 6 MiG-29s ? What version ?

Thanks for informations about IrAF MiG-29´s.
It is off topic a little bit, but Slovak AF recently have 12 MiG´s modernized to AS standard - to ensure compactibility with NATO (aircraft now has navigation and communications systems from Rockwell Collins, an IFF system from BAE Systems). They are more or less combat capable. 3 more are reserved for modernization if money would be allocated.
What wersion???
First, we inherited 10 "original" Fulcrums from Soviet deliveries (build 1988, delivered in early 1989) and then in 1994-96 14 more were delivered directly from Russia - Diferenci is in that "new ones" could carry external fuel tanks under the wings and not just under the belly.
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One question if I am understand it right. There was a plan to modified MiG-29 to flying tanker, same as Mirage F.1EQ??? With domestic "buddy tanker pod" or with french from Mirages???



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