Iraqi 'Mach 3' MiG Buried in Sand (Charles Smith)

NewsMax.com ^ | August 6, 2003 | Charles Smith

[HighRoadToChina]

Iraqi 'Mach 3' MiG Buried in Sand Charles R. Smith Wednesday August 6, 2003

NewsMax.com has obtained exclusive photos of a buried Iraqi jet fighter being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops. The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in the sands after an informant tipped off U.S. troops. Click here to see the MiG buried in the Iraqi desert.

The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two-dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sands, like hidden treasure, waiting to be recovered at a later date.

Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found were from the Gulf War era.

The Russian made MiG-25 Foxbat recovered by U.S. Army troops in the pictures, is an advanced reconnaissance version never before seen in the west and is equipped with sophisticated electronics warfare devices.

U.S. Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth moving equipment to uncover the MiG which is over 70 feet long and weights nearly 25 tons.

Click here to see troops digging the MiG out of its hole.

Click here to see troops towing the jet away.

All photos courtesy of MSGT T. Collins, USAF

The Foxbat is known to be one of Iraq's top jet fighters. The advanced electronic reconnaissance version found by the U.S. Air Force is currently in service with the Russian air force. The MiG is capable of flying at speeds of over 2,000 miles an hour or three times the speed of sound, and at altitudes of over 75,000 feet.

The recovery of the advanced MiG fighter is considered to be an intelligence coup by the U.S. Air Force. The Foxbat may also be equipped with advanced Russian and French made electronics that were sold to Iraq during the 1990s in violation of a U.N. ban on arms sales to Baghdad.

The buried aircraft at Al Taqqadum were covered in camouflage netting, sealed and in many cases had their wings removed, before being buried over ten feet underneath the Iraqi desert.

X MARKS THE SPOT

The discovery of the buried Iraqi jet fighters illustrates the problem faced by U.S. inspection teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is larger in size than California and the massive deserts south and west of Baghdad were used by Saddam Hussein to hide weapons during the first Gulf war.

U.S. intelligence sources have already uncovered several mass grave burial sites in the open deserts with an estimated 10,000 dead hidden there. In addition, Iraq previously hid SCUD missiles, chemical weapons and biological warheads by burying them under the desert sands. U.N. inspection teams found the weapons in the early 1990s after detailed information of the exact locations was obtained.

Top U.S. weapons inspector Dr. David Kay is known to favor human intelligence as the primary means to find Iraq's hidden treasure trove of weapons and secrets.

While there are rumors of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons being shipped to nearby Syria, the weapons may very well still remain inside Iraq buried under the vast desert wastelands.

Some critics of the Bush administration have claimed that the inability of U.S. forces to uncover weapons of mass destruction is proof that the President misled the nation into the war with Iraq. However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly leaked from Iraq that major discoveries have already been made and are now being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You'd think our satellites would've noticed a little dust from this mass burial.

[RJL]

In what way is it interesting that these countries have supplied just a fraction of equipment to iraq when compared to what America has "supplied" to Israel?

Israel? This thread is about Iraq, my post concerned the possibility about France and Russia selling UN forbidden military hardware to Iraq.

If you want to start bashing America and Israel you should probably head back over to DU.

[Starrgaizr]

looks like a scene from Star Wars

[Onelifetogive]

And I thought it was tough to get all the sand out of my car after a trip to the beach...

[Long Cut]

"If you want to start bashing America and Israel you should probably head back over to DU."

Check its posts out. It's been here all of 24 hours, and has slammed the U.S. Marine Corps, Israel, and America in general, in only 4 total posts!

[El Gato]

Can those planes be made operational after being buried in the sand in such a manner? How long do you think that plane was sitting out there?

If the sand is really dry, and it appears to be, you might be able to just give them a good wash and an inspections and fire 'em up. However notice that the canopy appears to be broken and it does not appear that any of the other openings, engine intakes and exhaust for instance, have be sealed up. We store aircraft out in the Arizona (and California for commercial aircraft) dessert, but they seal 'em up pretty well, including spraying a foam over the intakes and exhaust as well as the canopy. Lots of birds have come back from the boneyard to fly again, often after an upgrade and sale to some other country. Others are used for parts. Here are some USMC Harriers in serviceable storage

[El Gato]

Mach3 somewhere in the middle east. (If my memory is correct it was Egypt)

Actually on a shuttle mission from/to Egypt and Syria. It PO'd the Israelies that they couldn't get in position fast enough to get a missile into the right "basket". It was just barely possible, and they finally managed it, IIRC.

[El Gato]

I know Russian fighter's engines are supposedly less susceptible to foreign object damage (fod), but this is a bit much

Just wash 'em down real well, and the engines would probably be OK. Some of the stuff inside the cockpit might not fare so well, and washing it down would not be too good for it. Not washing with water at any rate.

[CCCV]

Actually on a shuttle mission from/to Egypt and Syria.
That's what one of the guys here told me. I do remember the stink though. Everyone was afraid untill they dissected the one that landed in Japan. We were just getting the F-15 at the time.

[KiaKaha]

I also believe the high altitude; high-speed concept had became flawed due to improvements in Soviet AA Missiles, tracking radars and the high-speed high altitude interceptor AKA Mig 25.

So they went for the terrain hugging concept, B1 and ultimately to the radar “invisible” B2

[El Gato]

It seems to me that by hanging an magnetometer on a UAV and flying a regular grid pattern these thing would pop out like the new man at a nudist colony.

Just wistle up a few Navy P-3s or SH-60s, they come equiped with MAD gear. S-3s used to have them, but they no longer perform the anti submarine mission, and the equipment has been deleted.

[xm177e2]

Wonder why they never went thru with it?

Cruise missiles/ICBMs did what the Valkyrie was supposed to do, and basically did the job better. That, and it's not easy to get delta wings to work (even now we need high-powered computers working while the planes are in-flight in order to get delta wings to work well). At least, that's what I've read, I don't know a whole lot about this subject.

[Northern Yankee]

How come I never found one of those in my sandboxes?

Maybe it will be at Oshkosh's EAA Airventure next year.

Does the finder's keepers rule apply here?

[eniapmot]

...honeycomb stainless steel skin...

The crack someone made about a dedicated foundry for the MIG, was, in fact, true for the XB70. In Middletown, Ohio, if I recall.

[eniapmot]

Arizona (and California for commercial aircraft) dessert

Don't forget the Baked Alaska!

[Tony in Hawaii]

Kia, thanks for that link. Great website. One of my mentors in my brief career in aerospace engineering worked for North American during that period, and I heard a lot about the B-70.

http://www.labiker.org/xb70.html

[woody9]

Non of our satellites picked up these things while they were being buried. Hard to believe.

[El Gato]

Wonder why they never went thru with it?

The SA-5, and to some extent the Mig-25. About that time SAC figured out that high and fast was still vulnerable to missles and everybody in the whole could see you up there. They went with moving the B-52s down to the deck (well about 500 feet) and bought the B-1, which was designed from the outset to fly very low, like around 200 feet at high subsonic speeds. Now, with stealth, we are back to flying high again, but no need to fly all that fast, because if they can't see you, then can't catch you.

[El Gato]

It'll look neat in a museum, but it's not exactly an intelligence coup.

That depends on what avionics it was carrying. The Russians have, out of necessity, shown less reluctance to export the "good stuff" than they did when they were the Soviets.

[El Gato]

When he flamed out, he glided to land in Japan.

He didn't flame out, but he also didn't have enough fuel for another go round. I think he did go around once, because when he broke out of the clouds, there was an airliner on the runway.