Posted on 08/06/2003 12:35:40 PM PDT by 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.
He later worked with USAF and USN, briefing on Soviet tactics and training. One of the guys in my reserve unit, a former F-4 driver(with a Silver Star) but by then an intell wienie (due to an injury that took him off flight status) met him.
Satellites are not so good at detecting transient events. They only come over a few times a day, and you know exactly when. It's easy to miss something that you aren't specifically looking for, or are looking in the wrong place. Throw a tarp over the aircraft when the satellite comes over and it will likely not be noticed out in the middle of nowhere. Plus it probably wouldn't take all that long to bury an aircraft in such loose sand.
Not really. There were a whole series of French Mirage fighters with delta wings, not to mention our own F-106 and it predecessor the F-102, flown by "W" in his younger days. Low speed is where they have the biggest problem. The B-70 had those drooping wingtips to allow it to exploit a particular high speed effect (compression lift maybe?... the brain is slowly going as well as going slowly)
MiG-25's equipped with cameras and SIGINT/ELINT equipment flew regularly along the borders of West Germany at 65,000 and Mach 2.6 on regular recon missions. However, the plane was not completely invulnerable, as a number of MiG-25 recon planes were shot down by Israeli Air Force F-15's during the 1980's. They're unlike the SR-71, which regularly flew at over Mach 3.0 around 85,000 feet, which made interception quite difficult indeed.
However, the MiG-25 did evolve into the MiG-31 Foxhound, which was a high-speed interceptor with long-range missiles that was designed specifically to defend Soviet border areas, replacing the aging Tu-28 Fiddler interceptor.
The Foxbat was built to counteract the B70 Valkrye (sp?) which was built but never went into production.
As I understand, the engine would not be capable of re-starting, due to its deteriorated state. They get great fuel-milage for a while as the lining of the engine becomes part of the reaction.
There was one effectively destroyed by a sniper. He shot and killed the driver as he was going over a bridge, and the tank went over the side. ...but that's not what you meant either.
< Shouldn't that have been a number, 94 or less? :P
They must not have tested it very well. It should have been a single wire to ground (plus ornamentation), yes?
Well, it depends on whether we were looking there (better resolution generally means narrower field of view), and how long it took to bury it. We hide AIRCRAFT CARRIERS at SEA.
Did the gauges bounce around and lights flash like a toy train? Damn, I hope so!!!
Well, it depends on whether we were looking there (better resolution generally means narrower field of view), how long it took to bury it, and whether the plane was exposed while being buried (they did note camo-net. We hide aircraft CARRIERS at SEA.
I want to know how, with all the high-falutin' satellite surveillance we have, we didn't spot the huge operation of burying these 20+ jets!
The satellites have a limited "scope of view". If there is interesting stuff on the left the satellite will not see what is going on to the right.
Picture yourself at the range. You will be looking at your target and will not see someone sneaking up behind you.
You are stealthy. Nobody else saw the repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, posts!!!
;<)
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