Very little is known about Hosni Mubarak’s military career in the public: at most, Egyptians might recall him as a ‘hero’,…
Tom Cooper
Tom Cooper
Tom Cooper, from Austria, is a military-aviation journalist and historian. Following a career in a worldwide transportation business — in which, during his extensive travels in Europe and the Middle East, he established excellent contacts — he moved into writing. An earlier fascination with post-Second World War military aviation has narrowed to focus on smaller air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives of material. Concentrating primarily on air warfare that has previously received scant attention, he specializes in investigative research on little-known African and Arab air forces, as well as the Iranian Air Force. Cooper has published 21 books — including the unique Arab MiGs' series, which examines the deployment and service history of major Arab air forces in conflicts with Israel — as well as over 200 articles on related topics, providing a window into a number of previously unexamined yet fascinating conflicts and relevant developments.
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Cold War EraMilitary Aviation
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Syrian MiG-29-fleet is in very poor condition, as obvious from the recent crash of the jet flown by Col. Yunes al-Makdid,…
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MiG KillersMilitary Aviation
Here’s why ‘who would win a 1-v-1 air engagement, (Turkish) F-16 or (Syrian) MiG-29?’ is a No Go Question
by Tom CooperCombat aircraft aren’t some kind of medieval knights on a jousting tournament. They’re not even ‘Spitfires vs Bf.109s’ any more. On…
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F-14 TomcatLosses and Aviation SafetyMilitary Aviation
The Story behind this Photo of An F-14 Tomcat Shooting Itself Down while Firing an AIM-7 Sparrow Air-to-Air Missile
by Tom CooperOne of the most complex parts of the F-14 Tomcat testing were firings of AIM-7 Sparrows from stations on the belly…
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F-14 TomcatLosses and Aviation SafetyMilitary Aviation
[Updated] This US Navy F-14A Tomcat was damaged over Beirut in 1983 (but not by Syrian AAA or SAMs)
by Tom CooperThe interesting photo in this post features a damaged F-14A Tomcat from VF-11 (modex AE103) embarked aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), returning…
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Cold War EraMiG KillersMilitary Aviation
How an AIM-9 Sidewinder that Failed to Detonate and Got Embedded in a MiG-17 was Reverse-Engineered into the Soviet AA-2 Atoll
by Tom CooperBecause the AA-2 was the primary weapon of the MiG-21, ‘Atoll’ became the first air-to-air missile in service with dozens of…
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DronesMilitary Aviation
All Iranian Characters Killed in Jan. 3 US Air Strike, the IRIAF F-14s scrambled to Intercept the MQ-9 UAV that conducted the Air Raid and All the Latest Updates about Major-General Qasem Soleimani’s Death
by Tom CooperThe death of Soleimani is going to change exactly nothing because Soleimani was easily ‘replaced’ by several ‘high-class technocrats’ of the…
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Cold War EraMilitary Aviation
Hot Skies Over Afghanistan: That Time a Pakistani F-16 damaged a Soviet MiG-23 Attacking Targets over the Border between Afghanistan and Pakistan
by Tom CooperThe Pakistani F-16 pilot released two AIM-9L, rolled 135 degrees and left the fight ‘head over heels’ from within 1500 m…
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Cold War EraMilitary Aviation
Here are some Tips for building an Accurate Model of an Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat
by Tom Cooper“Nearly every single model of an Iraqi MiG-25PD from 1991 I’ve seen so far is missing at least one, sometimes two,…
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Cold War EraMilitary Aviation
The Mystery of Air Battle of el-Mansourah, the Air Battle that Never Was but that Egyptians Think to Have Fought
by Tom CooperEven the Egyptian Air Force is not teaching its own pilots about any kind of an Air Battle of el-Mansourah. Seems,…