An Iraqi Fighter Jet

[BFMF]

I was on a mission that lasted several days, and saw this off the road. There were several others, but I was either unable to get a picture at all, or the quality wasn't good.

It would be insteresting to know what really happened to it...

[61_OTU]

I'd guess at a Mig21.....I suppose it could have been a casualty of the first Gulf War:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#I ... es_to_Iran

"The first week of the air war saw a few Iraqi sorties, but these did little damage and thirty-eight Iraqi MiGs were shot down by Coalition planes. Soon after, the Iraqi Air Force began fleeing to Iran, with between 115 to 140 aircraft flown to Iran"

However there's no evidence, it could have been a technical failure and the carcass was just left behind.

[ozzy72]

That is a Mig-21 tea-bag

[AlphaBravo]

However there's no evidence, it could have been a technical failure and the carcass was just left behind.

Looks like theres some bullet/cannon rounds in the tail though..

[beaky]

Looks like theres some bullet/cannon rounds in the tail though..

More likely from people taking potshots at it on the ground.... but who knows?
How close is the nearest airfield, I wonder?

[61_OTU]

More likely from people taking potshots at it on the ground.... but who knows?
How close is the nearest airfield, I wonder?

That was my thought, I bet very few of the jets brought down in Iraq were downed by gunfire, mostly missiles I'd guess. Much More likely to be the result of pedestrians taking pot shots.

The lack of any major structural/fire damage makes me think it went u/s on the ground and was dumped.

[airsoftman687]

looks like that baby got shot up wit an a-10's 30mm cannon  :o

[BFMF]

Now that my internet is back up....


I talked to my squad leader, who is in Iraq for the third time now. When we invaded Iraq, Saddam knew his jets would be destroyed. He dragged a lot of his fighters out into the desert and started to build berms around them to bury the jets. But for some reason, they never finished. When our troops found them, they were ordered to disable the jets.

That particular Mig, along with several others are close to the Al Asad airbase

[Woodlouse2002]

I was going to say, the paint on that looks too fresh to have been lying in a desert for 16 years, so it's unlikely to have been from the first war.

[F3Hadlow]

Sad to see such a potent aircraft just rotting away like that

[flyboy_14]

looks like that baby got shot up wit an a-10's 30mm cannon  :o

I would bet an A-10 got to it.  ;D

[beaky]

I would bet an A-10 got to it.  ;D

I bet there'd be a whole lot less of it if they used that gun on it... Some fairly large holes, but nowhere near enough of them to indicate a gun that spews 3900 30mm rounds per minute as installed on the A-10...!

Cool toy...


http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/a10g ... unss_1.htm

[Ivan]

Just a MiG-21... not worth the risk of flying it to Iran (like the MiG-25P and the Mirages).
Someone probably threw a grenade in the cockpit or shot at it with a heavy gun.

Almost all of the MiG-25s left in Iraq are either RB (long narrow nose) models or trainers (elevated second cockpit, narrow nose), both of which are useless in a dogfight as they are unarmed.

[Romulus111VADT]

This Mig 25 was found and dug up in November 2003-








Listed at Snopes as true- http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp#add

Also listed at ACIG- Exhumating the Dead Iraqi Air Force
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_247.shtml

[BFMF]

Interesting Romulus...

I've been to 'TQ' many times. There are a few Iraqi jets there, but I've never seen that particular jet .


http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/ ... 1161423535