Foxbat my a$$.
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.
Foxbat my a$$.
Flying over thousands of square miles of sand at 1000 ft. looking for a mostly aluminum airplane: magnetic detection doubtful.
All you would need is a burned out tank or APV nearby to act as a decoy, the MAD operator would never be able to tell the difference. The same tactic is used by submarines. In "Hunt for Red October" didn't Clancy have a russian sub hide near the wreck of the Andria Doria?
Ain' gonna fly very far either. The wings are missin'.
Another consideration for sustained high speed flight would be the airframe's structural material. Any flight at sustained speeds of Mach 3 create, due to friction, surface temperatures that would cause an aluminum airframe to "fold" . An F-14's airframe, which is predominantly aluminum, would not be able to make the flight that you describe. An SR-71, which is constructed mainly of titanium, will have surface temperatures, in some areas, greater that 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Their airframes are actually annealed during every flight and are said to be strengthened. The useful life of the program was supposedly determined by the engine life and availability of spares for the J-58's.
Not as hard to believe as you might think. Because they're in low earth orbits, photo recon satellites do not have anything even approaching continuous coverage. Morever, because their orbits are relatively easy to determine, and because they carry only a very limited amount of fuel to change those orbits, the satellites can be easily avoided for hours at a time. Sure, you'll see the pit being dug (assuming that it's not being done under netting), and you'll see some sort of activity even with the netting that would definitely be in place during the actual burial, but unless you've managed to have moved a satellite without word getting back to the Iraqis to catch an actual airplane being taxied into that pit, you don't know what's going on from just a photo.
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