Iraqi TU-22 - The ghost Blinders

Strenuous efforts by Iraqi Air Force to ensured eight Tu-22Bs – including two Tu-22Ks damaged by engine before the war – and both Tu-22Us were operational again "early the eighties" and specifically 1981-82, plus a new group of personnel was trained and there were finally enough spares and maintainers to keep the fleet at a high readiness rate. As a result, Iraqi Air Force Blinders could now fly more missions than ever before, even if the number of available air frames never again reached previous levels. In response to a direct order from the Iraqi leadership the Iraqi Air Force changed its overall strategy and started targeting Iranian cities along the border, thus initiating what later became known as the “War of the Cities at 1984, In response to Iranian artillery bombardment to Iraqi cities and the capital Baghdad”. Iraqi Blinders were deployed intensively, mainly to strike targets deeper inside Iran – mainly in the Tehran area. Quite a few sorties reached their target areas and the Iraqi bomber fleet soon became a major headache for the Iranian people and the Iranian Air Force.

As the Iraqi bombers increased their attacks on different cities, the Iranian religious and military leadership, as well as the public, began exerting severe pressure on the Iranian Air Force to stop the bombardments.

The Iraqi air force succeed to lead the Iranian to doubt that the Iranian AF wasn't capable or even willing to intercept any Iraqi bombers or attack aircraft, The Iranian interceptors were flying at every opportunity and going after every Iraqi aircraft they could detect, and the flying was so intensive that normal maintenance schedules had to be ignored. While most of the Iraqi air strikes were succeeded & non intercepted.

The first Tu-22 strikes of the “War of the Cities” were flown in mid-February 1984. Within a few days a number of cities in northern Iran – including Zanjun, Qazyin, and Rasht – had been hit, and soon enough the Blinders were attacking targets in the Tehran area again. The 4th Composite Bomber Wing – now equipped with Tu-16s and Tu-22s only – was still operating from the H-3 AB complex, but, most of the missions were staged through al-Huriyah AB, near Kirkuk north east Iraq, where pairs of Blinders would refuel before starting their 550km long high-speed runs against the Iranian capital. They would cruise at a very high speed, which made them extremely difficult to intercept - in order to catch any Iraqi bombers the Iranians had to be in the right place at the right time and this is just impossible to them, and as well the Iraqi crews were not there to make their job easier and most of them trained well by Soviets and the French.

Iraqi ghost Blinders over Tehran! In March 1984 (soon after the seizure of Iraqi Majnoon islands during an Iranian offensive), a formation of five fast-moving Iraqi bombers were detected by Iranian F-14A, east of Qazyin City, just west of Tehran. This F-14 of the 73rd TFS was – together with two other Tomcats – based at Mehrabad AB.

The five Iraqi planes were identified by the AWG-9 radar as four Tu-22 bombers, all underway at about 40,000 feet and high speed, and one Tu-16 bomber flying at about 45,000ft, just behind the Blinder formation. The IranianTFB.1 immediately scrambled pair of F-4Es and began to prepare four more Phantoms for take-off, while the SAM units were alerted that Tehran would soon come under attack. However, the Iraqi bombers detected the emission of the AWG-9 and were no longer intent on just flying into the open arms of the Iranian AF and Tehran’s air defenses: instead, these bombers and their Iraqi crews behaved somehow different today as a new strategy and they are about to show something never seen before.

The Iranian F-4 led his wingman along to intercept vector towards the Iraqi bombers initially after take-off, he had a very good feeling that these five Iraqi planes had showed their plan early, and that they would now pay a high price for this. For once in the time Iranian climbed into their Phantoms and had solid information on their side: how many, what type, and where the Iraqi bombers is. Plus the Iranian air force had fighters in place to intercept our Blinders. However, the Iranian was still feeling somewhat apprehensive as they climbed to intercept our Blinders – for two main reasons.

The first was that this was a large group of bombers and second that Iranian did not know why was there a lone Tu-16 tagging along behind the much faster Blinders!?

Iraqi AF bombers were rarely to fly such large numbers, it was more common as a single bomber or in pairs or trios at most. Iranian was thinking at first that the Iraqi Badger was acting as "pathfinder" for the Tu-22s, but the Blinders were instead clearly leading the Tu-16 into the battle. Then Iranian came to the idea that the Tu-16 might have acted as a tanker, so to extend the endurance of the Blinders "maybe this is what Iranian F-4 wingman agreed with formation leader that this must have been the case " and just It would not take long to learn that they were both of them wrong !

As they closed to the Iraqi TU-22s, he(the formation leader) started setting up an AIM-7 Sparrow attack, but, as he – briefly – attempted a lock-on onto the Iraqi lead Tu-22, any hope for a missile attack immediately vanished. The two leading Blinders both initiated their high-speed dashes, pulling ahead of the others in their flight. The Iranian F-4 thought at that moment, that perhaps they were going to intercept his flight ! but then they both climbed, and then made abrupt U-turns, one bomber going to the left and one to the right. It appeared to him at that moment, that the Iraqi pilots had chosen to run back home, and his wingman confirmed that he was thinking the same over radio...

Even as they were talking, his WSO reported that the other three Iraqi bombers were holding their direction and speed. Thinking to himself again that this was bad, and that the Iraqis were splitting their formation in order to make it more difficult to intercept them and this is what really Iraqi Blinders planned for, now we can assure you that moments later things went from bad to worse to the Iranian F-4s, as all the Iraqi planes disappeared like ghosts from the radar display of Iranian Phantoms...

Now what happened? The Iraqi TU-22s started to jammed the Iranian F-4s radars using SMALTA-5 ECM systems, and then also jammed their radio communication with the wingman and with their base: instead they could hear the low- and high-pitched sounds of jamming from the Soviet Pelena II electronic radio jammer. Later, while reconstructing the Iraqi operation on debriefing, the Iranian determined that the lead two Tu-22s had pulled ahead and climbed to drop a large package of chaff, forming a huge chaff cloud barrier in front of the remainder of their formation, before turning back towards Iraq.

The bomb-bays was fully-loaded with chaff, to create a chaff cloud large enough to hide all the Blinders from Iranian radars. But, now Iranian did not only have to contend with this chaff cloud, but also they didn't know that at least one of the remaining three Iraqi bombers was also equipped with a powerful electronic warfare suite – manned obviously by a capable operator,now who of them will knew how we will operate it against them ?

The Iraqis TU-22s dropped chaff and jammed them before, but not like this TU-22s were carrying flare and chaff cartridges usually in the rear of both of their main landing-gear pods, along with strike cameras...

The Iranian F-4 pilot said in that time (Having no other plan in my mind, I used hand signals to tell my wingman to follow me into the chaff-cloud, and switch to Sidewinders. We still had enough fuel and a total of eight AIM-9s between us that could not be jammed by chaff – plus four pairs of good eyes, which were now our only hope for intercepting Iraqi bombers). now as the Iranian F-4 flew into this man-made “blind-zone” scanning the sky overhead for their targets, they did not know that the remaining two Tu-22s had dropped to a lower level and speed. Simultaneously, the lone Tu-16 was climbing at its top-speed to a higher altitude: soon it would become all too clear to Iranian that the powerful jammers and the good electronic warfare specialist were located aboard that Tu-16 Badger. The two Blinders, by then at only 600ft, launched a single AS-4 missile each towards Tehran: the missiles ignited properly and started climbing to a higher altitude for a maximum efficiency cruise, and then the bombers turned away back to Iraq.

The lone Tu-16 continued towards Tehran at first, approaching to only some 30km from the city, and supplied the mid-course guidance update to the two missiles that were now at a high altitude, until they approached close enough for their own terminal guidance systems to activate and acquire the target: Mehrabad TFB.1. The air was suddenly free of most of Iraqi jamming, and the Tu-16 then also turned back towards Iraq, allowing the two of Iranian radars near Tehran to detect the AS-4s in their terminal dive at a very high speed from high altitude. The noise, surprise, and confusion caused by this attack did far more damage to the people of Tehran than the two 1,000kg warheads ever could.

Meanwhile, Iranian F-4s had regained a clear picture on their radars, but by now it was too late for them to help and catch the Iraqi bombers.

The Iranian F-4s were short on fuel and had to return back to TFB.1 even as the tower informed them that the airfield was hit.

There was no joy for the Iranian air force and Iran on that day...

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