Exhumating the Dead Iraqi Air Force

From ACIG.org

Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database
Exhumating the Dead Iraqi Air Force
By Tom Cooper
Aug 5, 2003, 14:53

On 6 July 2003, the US troops deployed in Iraq found a large number (between 30 and 40) of Iraqi Air Force aircraft, dug in into the sand near the al-Taqaddum AB, some 250km west of Baghdad.

Several days back, the following series of photographs was supplied to ACIG.org from our contributors currently in Iraq. The photographs were meanwhile released for publishing by the US DoD, and few were already posted on the internet, so we feel free to follow the pattern now as well, albeit with the difference that we are the first so far to publish the whole series.

All the captions in this report are from the official US DoD release.

A U.S. military search team discovers a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad. (all photographs: USAF)

A U.S. military search team calls in heavy equipment after discovering a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

A U.S. military search team begins digging after discovering a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

A U.S. military search team examines a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, that lay buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

The nose of a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, emerges from beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

U.S. forces use heavy equipment to pull a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, from beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

A U.S. military truck pulls a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, from the site where it lay buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

A U.S. military search team studies a Cold War-era MiG-25R Foxbat B, the fastest combat aircraft today, that was buried beneath the sands in Iraq. Several MiG-25s and Su-25 ground attack jets have been found buried at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.

Short History of MiG-25 in service with the Iraqi Air Force, since 1980

Iraq ordered MiG-25s from the USSR in 1979, in a large package including some 240 aircraft and helicopters. The Soviets conditioned the delivery on permission of stationing up to 18.000 their "advisors" in Iraq (at the time the whole IrAF was only 24.000 strong): finally, the 24 MiG-25s that were to be deployed in Iraq had also to be defended and escorted by a squadron each of Soviet-flown MiG-21MFs and MiG-23MLs.

This whole Soviet "delegation" started arriving in Iraq in late spring 1980, and had all of its MiG-25s, MiG-21s, and MiG-23s initially based at the newly built Shoibiyah AB, few kilometers outside Basrah, in southern Iraq.

When Iraq invaded Iran, on 22 September 1980, the Soviet contingent was only slightly decreased, although Moscow officially declared neutrality in this war, and simultaneously tried to establish better relations with Tehran. So, the Soviets at Shoibiyah AB were to become involved in the war against Iran on the Iraqi side - and this right from the start of the fighting. Already on the afternoon of 22 September, the IRIAF flew first strikes against Shoibiyah AB, hitting it very hard and causing considerable damage. On the following day another strike was flown, damaging the airfield sufficiently to force the whole Soviet contingent to be evacuated to H-3/al-Wallid AB, in western Iraq.

For the rest of 1980 "Iraqi" MiG-25s did not participate in the war: actually, by the end of the year only four were put under the Iraqi control, while all the others remained in Soviet hands. This was to change only painfully slow though 1981 and 1982: not before the summer 1982 were Iraqi Foxbats to start flying combat sorties. Their initial operations, however, ended with a swift loss of four examples to the Iranian F-14s, in September, November, and December of the same year. Another MiG-25PD(export) is known to have been shot down while underway at low level and speed by an F-5E, a MiG-25RB by F-14s in February 1986, in 1983, and another - flown by the Iraqi top "ace" of the Iraq-Iran War, Lt.Col. Mohammad "Sky Falcon" Rayyan - by a combination of AIM-54s fired from IRIAF F-14s, and gunfire from F-5Es, in July 1986.

An early IrAF MiG-25RB: Iraqi - actually Soviet-controlled - recce-Foxbats started flying operational sorties against Iran in the spring of 1981. Not many details about their early operations are known. The example here, serialled "125", shows the original serials carried by the variant after it entered service with the 1st Fighter-Reconaissance Squadron IrAF. (all artworks by Tom Cooper, copyright 2003, all rights reserved)

While more MiG-25RBs were confirmed shot down in 1987 and 1988, no additional MiG-25PD(export) or MiG-25PDS are known to have been lost by the end of the war. On the positive side, through 1982, 1983, and 1984, they could report the downing of several Iranian aircraft, as well as several attacks against international airliners underway over northern Iran (during one of which the Iraqi MiG-25PD(exort)s shot down the Grumman Gulfstream carrying the Algerian foreign minister). Confirmed kills included at least one Iranian F-4D, and an (E)C-130E Khofaash ELINT/SIGINT platform.

Initially, the Iraqis have got MiG-25RBs and MiG-25PD(export)s, but from 1985-1986 a number of these was either upgraded to MiG-25RBT and MiG-25PDS standards, or new aircraft of corresponding versions were delivered from the USSR in order to replace losses. Namely, from this time the Iranians started finding the huge 5.000litre drop tanks the Iraqi Foxbats would jettison when pursued by IRIAF interceptors. Such drop tanks were used only by newly-built MiG-25RBTs and MiG-25PDS, for example.

At least from 1986, but probably already from 1985, the IrAF started receiving MiG-25RBTs, recognizible by the capability to carry the huge 5.000litre drop tanks, as seen on the "25125", shown here. Also, the surviving MiG-25RBs were upgraded to this standard, although they never became capable of carrying these tanks, which - during the 1990s - enabled the Iraqi recce-Foxbats to fly some particularly spectacular sorties into the Jordanian and Saudi airspace. Since 1983 or 1984, all Iraqi MiG-25RB/RBTs were operated by the 17th FRS.

Aside from MiG-25RBs, and MiG-25PDs, in 1986 the Soviets for the first time deployed also their MiG-25BMs to Iraq. Not much is known about the first such "test expedition", but that it was brought to a sudden end when one of the aircraft was shot down by an Iranian F-14. The same happened during the next such test, undertaken in November 1987, with the difference that that time the MiG was "only" damaged, which caused it to crash-land in Iraq. The MiG-25BMs were deployed to Iraq one final time in May and June 1988.

In 1986, 1987, and 1988 the Soviets also deployed several MiG-25BMs to Iraq for testing purposes. Between others, these also used the Kh-58U and Kh-25MP anti-radar-missiles in combat. At least two were lost in clashes with Iranian F-14A Tomcats - to a considerable disgrace and disappointment of the Soviets.

After the war with Iran, Iraqi MiG-25s remained in service, and were to see limited action during the II Persian Gulf War, in 1991. On the first night of the war, an Iraqi MiG-25PD shot down an USN F/A-18C, and two others caused some hard maneuvering in at least one USN and an USAF formation of fighter-bombers. Subsequently, however, the Iraqi Foxbats were not as successful, and two were shot down in air combats with USAF F-15Cs - albeit only after a considerable number of Sidewinders and Sparrows fired at them missed.

MiG-25PD(export) and MiG-25PDS interceptors were the most numerous versions supplied to Iraq. During the 1980s and early 1990s they were in service with the 1st FRS (the A-Flight of which was manned by Iraqis, while the B-Flight was manned by Soviets and East Germans). This unit was considered the elité of the Iraqi Air Force, and not without any reason: its pilots and officers were the best Iraq ever had.

Iraqi MiG-25s remained operational and dangerous after this war as well: in 1993 they several times threatened US aircraft flying over southern Iraq unless one was shot down by USAF F-16s. During the rest of the 1990s, the Iraqis used them much more carefully, and tried to avoid direct confrontations with US or British aircraft, patrolling the no-fly zones. On two occassions in 1999 the USN Tomcats and USAF F-15s engaged Iraqi MiG-25s, firing AIM-54s and AIM-120s from maximal ranges, but missing every time. Iraqi Foxbats were always flown by the best IrAF pilots, and these learned to deploy and use their fighters in combat properly as well as how to evade attacks even by most modern air-to-air missiles already during the war with Iran. Nevertheless, at least three IrAF MiG-25s were lost in different accidents since 1991 alone.

Since the year 2000, Iraqi MiG-25s were reported flying recce sorties over Jordan, and even penetrating the Saudi airspace: the Jordanian F-16As proved unable to intercept any, while in early 2003 even the USAF F-15s came too late to catch the Foxbat that flew 60km deep over Saudi Arabia. In December 2002, finally, an Iraqi MiG-25PD shot down a USAF RQ-1B Predator armed recce drone in a sharp engagement in which both sides opened fire.

To a great surprise of all informed observers, however, the IrAF was not to participate in the III Persian Gulf War at all: instead, all of its aircraft were hidden, or - as the report above showed - even burried intact.

Why this was done - especially in the given manner - remains unclear: certainly, due to the poor way this job was "completed", there is no serious chance of any of the "burried Foxbats" ever flying again.