RECENT DRILL BETWEEN ANG F-16s AND COLOMBIAN KFIRs BRINGS TO OUR MIND IRON EAGLE MOVIE

While Iron Eagle was not a major success at the cinema, the aerial photography of the motion picture was quite cool

Enroute to the Feria Aeronautica Internacional – Colombia airshow earlier this month, a pair of F-16s from the South Carolina Air National Guard had radio drills and intercepts with Colombian Air Force Kfirs based in Palenquero.

The aim of the one hour and a half mid-air training was to prepare the Kfir pilots for Red Flag in March 2018.

This drill brings to mind the 1985/86 cult movie Iron Eagle that leased several Israeli F-16 and Kfir (which in the movie played the part of the Soviet-built MiG-23 Flogger) fighter aircraft for the aerial combat sequences. Noteworthy while the movie was not a major success at the cinema, the aerial photography of the motion picture was quite cool.

Actually the IAI Kfir (“Lion Cub” in Hebrew) is an Israeli-built all-weather, multirole combat aircraft based on a modified French Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, with Israeli avionics and an Israeli-built version of the General Electric J79 turbojet engine.

The aircraft entered service with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in 1975 and was withdrawn from active duty during the second half of the 1990s, after almost twenty years of continuous service.

However, even if we know that every Aviation Geek has seen this film at least one time, we decided to share the following clip where you can see the final, cool dogfight between the F-16 flown by Doug Masters and the Kfir/MiG-23 driven by Col. Akir Nakesh.

Photo credit: screenshot from the movie