Tag: Libyan Arab Air Force
The huge 1974 arms deal between Tripoli and Moscow resulted in several – outright ‘nightmarish’ – experiences with Soviet arms. 'Worst example' of all were MiG-23s, which the Soviets advertised as something like 'single-engined F-14s …' Single-Engined F-14s and the Iran-Iraq War Here’s the third part in a series of...
Shortly after two Libyan Su-22s were shot down by a section of F-14s led by CO of VF-41 Black Aces, Ed `Hunyack' Andrews from VF-84 Jolly Rogers got airborne. He really wanted to shoot some Foxbats down… On Aug. 19, 1981 after two VF-41 F-14s (Call Signs Fast Eagle 102 and 107) shot...
Captain Belkacem Emsik al-Zintani fired a missile and 'destroyed' the F-14, supposedly killing its pilot, Commander Henry Kleeman. In 2016, thirty-five years since the famous Syrte Gulf Incident of Aug. 19, 1981, in which two Grumman F-14 Tomcat interceptors of US Navy (USN) squadron VF-41 'Black Aces' shot down two Libyan Arab...
No less than 35 pairs of Libyan interceptors, including a total of 70 MiG-23MS's, MiG-25Ps, Mirage F.1s, and even Su-22s, Su-22Ms and MiG-25RBs, approached US Navy aircraft on Aug. 18, 1981. Relations between Libya under Gaddafi's rule and the USA gradually worsened after Tripoli's announcement that the Gulf of Syrte (known as the...
“Captain Koal MiG-23 was unarmed and carried no extra fuel tanks. He has got a new breathing mask that day. Our subsequent investigation has shown that this mask was too big. When he climbed to an altitude above 5,000 metres, he forgot to activate 100% oxygen and went into hypoxia,” Hazem al-Bajign, former Libyan Arab Air...
“I pushed my throttle to full dry power while my aircraft went through the vertical and pointed at the Tomcats while still inverted. Both Tomcat crews were fantastic: they followed the manoeuvre and we met at the top,” Abdelmajid Tayari, former Libyan MiG-23 pilot. Following a series of terrorist attacks on US and...
When the U.S. Navy's SAG violated what Libyans considered their territorial waters, two MiG-25 Foxbats forward-deployed at Benina AB were scrambled with the order to shoot down all airborne intruders. U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats Vs Libyan MiG-25 Foxbats. Tensions between the US and Libya heightened after the hijacking of TWA Flight...
After returning to the carrier, both the F-14s received single FLOGGER 'kill' markings above the nose MODEX, although these were removed by the time the jets returned to Oceana on Jan. 31 Jan. 4, 1989 was a historic day for VF-32, and the Tomcat community as a whole, when the F-14 once...
