DS 1991 MiG-25s vs F-15Cs

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 » 14 Sep 2015, 01:58

After a pause in interception missions after Jan 19 ... The Iraqi AF .. By Jan 28 ... decided to launch a daring mission to intercept F-15Cs patrolling the Eastern Iraqi borders with Iran ... These F-15Cs were on CAP to prevent Iraqi fighters from escaping to Iran ...
So on Jan 28 the AF command summoned the MiG-25 pilots from both Squadron 97 at Tamuz AB and 96 Squadron from Qadisiya AB to Baghdad ... The meeting took place on alternative site because the main building was hit by coalition air strikes ... Also attended the meeting some experienced MiG-21 and MiG-23 pilots ( wonder why not MiG-29 or Mirage Pilots !! ) :
The speaker was General Kamal Abdul Sattar ..
Mission Brief :
According to our monitoring of the F-15C activities .. They are performing CAP on our eastern borders with Iran to prevent any aircraft from escaping to Iran .. We have calculated the approximate time of these patrols in addition to the time needed for the next patrol to be on station on their location .
Next was a discussion on the patterns of these patrols and the best time to launch the mission and the best bases to launch the aircrafts and the area of intercept and how to communicate with GCI and alternative GCI ...
Conclusions :
1- Mission must be during day light
2- Mission task will be alternative between the two bases each other day
3- Suggested area of Engagement between Samarra and Diyala
4- Special authorization to fly over anywhere in Iraq even over the Republican Palace !!

One of the key aspect of the mission was to ensure the F-15Cs were low on fuel and still the next patrol is still faraway to engage .
Both aircrafts to Launch within short time and after a while get seperated .. One goes east the other one west and put the F-15s in pincer-like movement.

Execution
On Jan 29 .. Tamuz AB was on standby alert with 2 pilots ... Captain Mahmood Awad Squadron 97 as Formation leader and Captain Mohammed Jasim Alsamarai from Squadron 96 ( he was stationed with Squadron 97 to overcome pilot shortage ) ... The phone ring ordering both pilots to move to airplanes and get ready for the mission ... It was almost 1200 hr. and both pilots were in their cockpits waiting .. and waiting till after 2 hours the order came to cancel the mission for reasons that might led to failure !! ( wonder what were these reasons ? ).
Both Pilots returned to their shelters and the day passed without events.
The next day it was the Qadisiya base turn to be on standby alert but for reasons unknown the AF command decided to give the chance to Tamuz pilots of the previous day ( it seems that these pilots were ready at least psychologically for the mission ! )
At 1330 hr. The phone ring and it was Capt. Alsamarai who answered .. It was Major Ali Jasim who ordered the 2 pilots to go for their planes shelters ... Their was Colonel Ibraheem Hussain Jameel the squadron commander who checked every thing is good with the pilots .. The phone at the shelter ring and it was the order to go for the cockpits ... Capt. Alsamarai was thinking : according to the plan we are going to take off from the taxiway because the runway is damaged .. But the taxiway is narrow and it is impossible for two aircrafts to take off simultaneously at the same time ... So since I am No.2 then by the time I take off and still slow and if there is an undetected enemy aircraft I will be a sitting duck !!! So he asked the Formation leader Captain Awad to make his aircraft to gain high speed before take off and they to scramble at very short time distance so they have speed in case of undetected enemy aircraft ... Capt. Awad agreed.
The order to take off came immediately ... and Captain Awad moved his aircraft over the taxiway and pushed the buttons for the AF and the aircraft took off ... Captain Alsamarai immediately noticed that Captain Awad has forget the agreement .. So he have to wait for half min. After him plus 1 more min. Because of the dust and smoke that made the visibility so poor ... Captain Alsamarai took off and leveled the aircraft at only 20 Meters to gain high speed of 1000Km/hr .. And he gained altitude slowly .. So when he was over Alkhalidiya area only 100 meters .. The sound was so loud..
Captain Awad called Captain Alsamarai : From No.1 to No.2 .. My altitude is 8km what is your altitude ?
Captain Alsamarai : I am only 1Km but climbing in few seconds to 6Km.
Captain Awad : I am now 9Km whats yours ?
Captain Alsamarai : 6Km and climbing to 9Km but I have visual contact with you through the trail.
Captain Awad : Switching from base frequency to GCI1 Frequency ... No response .. Switching to GCI2 Frequency .. Radio contact.
GCI to No.1 : Enemy target 100km from your location barring 090 copy
No.1 to GCI : Roger confirm Enemy target 100km 090 .. Permission to climb to 12Km and dropping the EFT Copy
GCI to No.1 : Roger .. Permission granted
No.2 to GCI : Permission to climb to 12Km and dropping EFT copy
GCI to No.2 : Thats a Negative maintain 9Km and keep the EFT copy
No.2 : Roger
GCI to No.1 : Switch on your Radar and engage target is only 35Km away !! ( The Iraqi MiG-25PDS had N-005 Radar able to track at 120km and lock at 83km )
No.1 to GCI : I have locked the target but its 70Km away copy ?!
GCI to No.1 : No its less than 35km fire now !!
No.1 : Roger ( He thought If the American were at 35km why they didn't fire ??! Does he think I am friendly aircraft coming from the west ??! Anyhow in case my Radar is having a problem with calculating distance its better to fire ..
No.1 Captain Mahmood Awad fired his R-40RD and kept tracking the missile through Radar and visually till it exploded .. But there was nothing .. No aircraft hit no black smoke ...
GCI to No.1 : it must be powerful ECM that is causing equipment problems .. Abort mission and return to base .. Copy
No.1 : Roger
At this time No.2 Captain Mohammed Alsamarai was turning to head home after the formation leader when the GCI contacted him
GCI to No.2 : Resume mission and engage targets at 090 distance 70Km ... Copy
No.2 : Roger ...
Captain Alsamarai switched on his MiG-25PD radar and the Radar showed these two letters (PP) which means active jamming and the radar is working to overcome the jam.
Suddey when the Jam was overcome the Radar locked the a target 45km away .
No.2 to GCI : Target is 40
GCI : Target is 50
No.2 : NOO target is 30
GCI : your target is 40
No.2 : Its 20
No.2 VISUAL CONTACT 2 F-15 !!
Captain Mohammed Alsamarai dropped his EFT and fired his R-40RD toward the second American aircraft , the F-15 pulled hard and evaded the missile ..
Captain Mohammed Alsamarai thought he hit the plane by this time No.1 F-15 was closing on the MiG-25PD , so Captain Alsamarai prepared a heat seeking missile but because of the speed both aircrafts passed each other and the heat seeker lost its track ... The F-15C passed right beside him dropping flares at a distance no more than 350-400 meters ... Suddenly the RWR of the MiG-25 begin to warn the MiG-25 of incoming missile ... It seems the other aircraft has fired ... So Captain Alsamarai pulled hard and evaded the missile but the other aircraft fired another missile also evaded by Captain Alsamarai which by now decided to use his afterburner to outrun the F-15s and return to base ...
By this time Captain Awad was almost at base preparing to land at the taxiway ... Captain Alsamarai was behind him with high speed so the distance become closer so he thought if had to land at the taxiway he might crash into him so he decided to risk landing at the damaged runway but suddenly 4 F-15S appeared directly infront of him so he decided to drop his landing gear and attempt ar the runway ... The American F-15 seeing that one aircraft has landed at the taxiway then the second one must land also on it because of the damaged runway and fired 3 missiles at the taxiway but Captain Alsamarai infact landed at the runway and luckily for him he evaded the damaged areas and made it safely to shelter.
His aircraft No. was 25221


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by nikolaos » 14 Sep 2015, 05:39

Is this the Operation Samara as called by Old Iraqi Air force forum member?
Were they any other Iraqi sorties between 19-28 January apart from the pause of Intercept missions?


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by oldiaf » 14 Sep 2015, 09:35

nikolaos wrote:Is this the Operation Samara as called by Old Iraqi Air force forum member?
Were they any other Iraqi sorties between 19-28 January apart from the pause of Intercept missions?

Yes .. It is Operation Samara ... The declining number of sorties as a result of losing air planes especially on the ground ... Plus the damaged runways and othe infrastructures such as Radars and Communications centers which will limit the capabilities of the interceptors .


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by oldiaf » 14 Sep 2015, 09:37

I wonder why there were 2 F-15Cs on that patrol and not 4 as in the standard 4 ship formation ?!


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by tomcooper » 14 Sep 2015, 15:54

oldiaf wrote:I wonder why there were 2 F-15Cs on that patrol and not 4 as in the standard 4 ship formation ?!

Because the other two went for the tanker.
F-Arba-Ashara!! Yalla, yalla!!


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by oldiaf » 14 Sep 2015, 19:06

After the 2003 war ... Major Mohammed Alsamarai was invited to the Pentagon to give his account of the incident


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by nikolaos » 14 Sep 2015, 20:33

How the Americans knew that Alsamarai was involved in the particular action?
Was operation Samara the last action of Iraqi interception and fighter units during Desert Storm?


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by oldiaf » 14 Sep 2015, 20:36

nikolaos wrote:How the Americans knew that Alsamarai was involved in the particular action?
Was operation Samara the last action of Iraqi interception and fighter units during Desert Storm?

It was the last as I know ... Most Iraqi Pilots were interviewed for different reasons after 2003 war ... Some by DIA .. probably the CIA also ... Some by journalists


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by oldiaf » 25 Sep 2015, 21:13

Preparing for the mission
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by oldiaf » 25 Sep 2015, 21:15

A photo taken that day for one of the 2 MiG-25
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by old.iraqi.air.force » 25 Sep 2015, 22:20

oldiaf wrote:A photo taken that day for one of the 2 MiG-25

This is not Iraqi MIG-25's, they didn't took any photo before or during took-off


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by oldiaf » 25 Sep 2015, 22:30

old.iraqi.air.force wrote:
oldiaf wrote:A photo taken that day for one of the 2 MiG-25

This is not Iraqi MIG-25's, they didn't took any photo before or during took-off

No one can tell for sure


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by old.iraqi.air.force » 25 Sep 2015, 22:36

oldiaf wrote:
old.iraqi.air.force wrote:
oldiaf wrote:A photo taken that day for one of the 2 MiG-25

This is not Iraqi MIG-25's, they didn't took any photo before or during took-off

No one can tell for sure

They use it as media picture to the story, it's not Iraqi MIG-25 for sure.


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by oldiaf » 25 Sep 2015, 22:40

What about the crew photo ?


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by old.iraqi.air.force » 25 Sep 2015, 22:52

oldiaf wrote:What about the crew photo ?

This picture taken on different date showing Air Force commander Muzahim and 96 Squadron leader and Capt.Mohammed al-Samarrai near his MIG-25, the Air Force commander was checking the squadrons arrangements and the preparation to upcoming threat/air battle.



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