1. It was early morning on January 17, 1991, when a lone Iraqi MiG-25PD „Foxbat” piloted by Lieutenant Zuhair Dawud of the Iraqi Air Force's 96th Squadron was lifted into the air on alert from Kadisiyah (now Al-Asad) base to intercept enemy aircraft preparing to raid the large Iraqi military airfield at Tammuz.
The Hornets, five from each of the two squadrons stationed at "Saratoga," flew in the first wave of the raid, in a widely extended stair-step formation. Their purpose was to sweep enemy fighter aviation in the Intruders' path and to counter air defenses with AGM-88 HARM missiles.
The Iraqi fighter flew straight at the Hornet of the VFA-81 squadron commander. Since the MiG-25 did not get the go-ahead to open fire in time, it avoided a close encounter, taking advantage of its speed advantage, and disappeared from the American's sight, disabling the afterburners unmasking it in the darkness. Also, the pilot of the American fighter, despite the electronic and visual identification of the target as an enemy machine, did not manage to obtain permission to attack from the operator of the AWACS circling several hundred kilometers away. A few maneuvers later, acting on the guidance navigator's instructions, Dawud turned on the radar and quickly found another target. The explosion of an R-40RD heavy missile fired from twenty-five kilometers away demolished the cockpit area and lower part of the F/A-18C flown by Lieutenant Commander Scott Speicher.
2. Sikorsky CH-34 Choctaw flight to search for downed pilot.
3. Shortly thereafter, a pair of F/A-18Cs from the same VFA-81 squadron retaliated by shooting down two Iraqi F-7A fighters (the export version of the Chinese MiG-21 copy of the Shenyang F-7M fighter). What was later emphasized as a significant advantage of the aircraft, both Iraqi MiGs were shot down without the Hornets abandoning their assigned combat task - while the enemy fighters went down in flames, both F/A-18Cs returned to the task of bombing the enemy airfield. This was the first and most spectacular aerial victory by US Navy aircraft during the Gulf War.
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https://www.mediafire.com/file/kv3fy36iasx1tes/The_first_hours_-_Desert_Storm_1991.zip/fileThe film was made solely based on these three missions.
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Topic: Desert Storm (Read 3120 times)
