Another picture of a MiG-23BN in 1991 at Boca Chica Naval Air Base after Mayor Orestes Lorenzo landed there durind his escaped from Cuba,the serial number on the plane was 722.
Notice the paint, is very new, that was the first flight on that MiG-23BN from the new base at Santa Clara, where the two squadrons that Cuba had were moved to from San Antonio de los Baños.
Cuba send a team to pick up this planes, and look who was leading the team.
On the left Capt. Jack Ench the Commanding officer at Boca Chica, receiving Macho Peralta, in 1992 Peralta was the Chief of the Cuban Counter Inteligence Military (CIM) a military organization as important as the DAAFAR.
So Peralta Mission is as a guard dog, to stop any more planes to be taken From Cuba.
Major Eduardo Gonzalez Serria was the pilot that was send to Boca Chica Naval Base (Key West, US) to pick up a MiG-23BN serial 722 that Mayor Orestes Lorenzo had use to escape from Cuba to the US, in 1991
Here is the MiG-23BN taking off on iis return trip to Cuba with Eduardo at the controls.
More to add to these incident.
Juan Pablo Roque a Cuban Air Force pilot faked desertion and arrived to Miami in 1992. He was able to penetrate the open organization Brothers-To-The-Rescue. He flew with them several missions in the Florida Straight to help boat refugees throwing them food, water and radios.
One day before the Cubans shot down the airplanes Roque returned to Cuba surreptitiously through The Bahamas. The Cuban plan was to use Roque to testify the Brothers-To-The-Rescue mission that day was a terrorist one, provided there were no survivors. Roque was going to appear as a survivor rescued by Cubans from the sea.
Juan Pablo Roque
And here is where he leaves today in Havana.
Calle paseo #201, Apto #33, Vedado Ciudad Habana, on top of the restaurant La Casa Potin.
The FBI is looking for them Ck this out.
And here is the picture of the MiG-29UB serial 900 with two stars for the Shootdown, the quality is not the best.
AlphaChi 1989
About the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown.
On February 24th 1996 a MiG-29UB serial FAR 900 was used together with a MiG-23ML to shoot down two Cessna 337of The Brothers to the Rescue. The MiG-23ML FAR 213 was used as a radio relay airplane and the MiG-29UB fired two AA-8 Aphid (R-60M) to shoot down both planes.
The MiG-29UB was chosen because it is the best slow flying fighter in the Cuban inventory, but before the undertaking, the DAAFAR chose carefully the best pilots, with combat experience in Angola and had them trained flying against a Polish-built PZL-104 Wilga, flown by a Cuban civilian pilot named Adolfo Perez Pantoja out of Jose Marti Airport. Cuba has added two red stars to the MiG-29UB serial FAR 900 as victories obtained during combat.
The MiG-29UB pilot was Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Alberto Perez Perez, veteran of 74 combat missions; his total flight experience was more than 1,000 hours, 500 of them in MiG-29 aircraft. He had been a MIG aircraft pilot for 19 years and had taken part in three international missions. His back seat was his twin brother Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Perez Perez, his total flight experience was more than 1,800 hours. He had been flying for 26 years and had taken part in international missions, including 30 combat missions. They graduated as MiG-21 pilots in the Soviet Union in 1975, spending most of their carrier at the San Antonio de los Baños Air Base and are members of the Communist party. They were 44 years of age.
Major Emilio Palacios flew the MiG-23ML, his total flight experience was more than 800 hours. He had been a MIG aircraft pilot for 15 years and had taken part in two international missions, which included some combat missions. Emilio was 35 years of age, graduating as a MiG-21 pilot in the Soviet Union in 1982. From then on he was based at Santa Clara Air Base, moving to San Antonio de los Baños in 1988, he is also a member of the Communist party
These are the three pilots that participated in the shoot down: Lt Colonel Alberto Perez second from the right with his brother Francisco by his side. Major Emilio Palacios is the first from the left. MiG-29s can be seen in the ground at San Antonio de los Baños Air Base.
Lt Colonel Alberto Perez
Richy1724
Many seem to agree that all Mig-23BN attack aircraft have been deactivated, but during my last visit to Cuba I saw several examples in apparent flying condition at Holguin’s Frank Pais International Airport. This airport is both civilian and military, and it is home to the 34th Tactical Support Regiment, which is equipped with the Mig-23BN. There was also a great deal of helicopter activity, I saw at least five either taking-off or landing in a very short time span.
The first MiG-23BNs arrived to Cuba on June 6th 1978; they were 12 Mig-23BN Flogger H serial FAR 710-721 and 2 MiG-23UB Flogger C serial FAR 700, 701.
The MiG-23s participated in the first exercise against the Soviet Navy on a visit to Cuba, attacking their ships at Matanzas on October 3rd 1978. The second operation called Granma XXII was on December 1978, training on bombings raids and getting plans ready, for possible bombing missions against Homestead and MacDill Air Force Base in South Florida. Following that, the MiG-23 appear for the first time in public, during a military parade of the XX Anniversary of the Revolution on January 2nd 1979. Lt. Colonel Rafael del Pino commanded 9 MiG-23 which passed through Revolutionary Square in three groups with the variable wings on 16º, 45º, 72º position. The MiG-23s were based at San Antonio de los Baños. Colonel Henry Perez Martinez flew 340 hours in 44 months from 1978 to 1981 flying MiG-23BN and UM since he had become one of the squadrons instructors. The first commanding officer of these squadron, was Lieutenant Colonel Bismark Torres Sosa, with three wings commanders, Captains Edelmiro Sanchez, Mario Sierra, and Albio Cordoba Mantecon. Major Eduardo Gonzalez Serria was the chief of tactics and shooting, when in October 1983, the US invaded the island of Granada where Cuba had troops, the coordinates for different objectives in south Florida were given to Eduardo, by the Ministry of Armed Forces, to input personally into the navigation computer of the MiGs-23BN, in complete secrecy without the Soviet assessors finding out.
Major Eduardo Gonzalez Serria was also the pilot that was send to Boca Chica Naval Base (Key West, US) to pick up a MiG-23BN serial 722 that Mayor Orestes Lorenzo had use to escape from Cuba to the US, in 1991, according to my sources Eduardo was one of the best pilots they had seen, without getting any advanced training in the Soviet Union, Eduardo was let go from the DAAFAR only about a year later and has been a Taxi driver in Havana since then, what a change.
In early1982 a second squadron of 12 MiG-23BN serials 722 to 733 and 2 MiG-23UB serials 704, 705 arrives in Cuba, by May of that year it becomes operational. UM 1661was commanded by Major Antonio Rojas, who later was replaced with Major Armando Castellanos since Antonio had been send to Angola. At that time many of the bombing practices were done at the Playa Tomate training grounds, near Cajio in the south of Cuba. The whole unit was expected to go to Angola and preparations were increased, specially with night flying. Other members of this squadron were Ramses del Pino Danta, Ruben Castellanos, Fidel Guzman, Eduardo Chirino, Jose Rodriguez Leal, Ivan Vega Presa, Omar Mesa, Libre Quintero and Juan Pablo Roque. They trained at Frunze in the Soviet Union in early 1982 to become MiG-23BN pilots.
Eight MiG-23BN were send to Angola by ship at the end of the Angolan war, in early 1988, but were never used in combat, and all came back to Cuba.
They were based at San Antonio de los Baños until 1991, when they were transfer to Santa Clara, to form part of the UM 1890 Regiment, were Lt. Colonel Ramón Alba Perdomo was one of the squadrons chiefs, now the MiG-23BN are no longer in service. The 12 or so MiG-23BN that remain in service were put into storage at some of the 42 hardened selters at Santa Clara Air Base (Abel Santamaria airport). Now you said that you saw some MiG-23BN at Holguin that could be the case, since Holguin has 4 HAS shelters by the runway and 38 other hardened shelteroff the main runway to protect the planes.
and it is home to the 34th Tactical Support Regiment
I hate to disagrre with you but those number have never been used by the DAAFAR, is part of Fidel Castro disinformation to keep people guessing, the regiment at Holguin is:
UM 1724 Regimiento de Intercepcion
UM ???? Escuadrón de Caza MiG-23ML/MF
MiG-23UB
UM 3710 Escuadrón de Intercepcion MiG-21bis
MiG-21UM
L-39C
UM 3840 Escuadrón de Intercepcion MiG-21bis (wfu)
MiG-21UM (wfu)
By the Way at Santa Clara this is what they had there.
UM 1890 Regimiento de Intercepcion y Aéreo-Tactico
UM ???? Escuadrón de Intercepcion MiG-21bis (wfu)
MiG-21UM (wfu)
UM ???? Escuadrón de Intercepcion MiG-21bis (wfu)
MiG-21UM (wfu)
UM ???? Escuadrón de Caza-Bombardeo MiG-23BN (wfu)
MiG-23UB (tsf)
UM ???? Escuadrón de Caza-Bombardeo MiG-23BN (wfu)
MiG-23UB (tsf)
About the 5 Mi-17 that I do completely agree with you I have the serial number of the five.
Here I’ll leave you a picture of the 4 HAS Shelter at Holguin airport.
And I also have a drawing of the Holguin airport.
Richy 1724 I love to see that video from Holguin Airport.
Better pictures of these Mi-17
And here is a Link to high resolution picture.
Mi-17 serial 164 High Resolution picture
New picture in the Internet.
It comes from the Air Forces Monthly article on Cuba that I wrote for the Month of May, under Latin American Survey.
This is a MiG-21UM serial 525 at Bayamo Airport, I found out about this MiG at Bayamo Airport in November of 2005 and by april of this year Fidel Castro had the plane turn around, so no one would be able to take pictures of the serial number, he did it to late, at the same airport there is also a MiG-21R serial 11?.
A little history on the Cubans MiG-21U, Cuba received 5 MiG-21U on 1966 serial 401-405. Then in 1971, 6 more MiG-21UM serial 500-505 got to Cuba with a squadron of 12 MiG-21MF. In the 80s, 12 MiG-21UM were delivered to Cuba for used as combat trainers for regiment UM 7000 (Escuela de Aviacion Militar Comandante Che Guevara) under Squadron UM 1650 at San Julian air force base, the serial on these MiG-21UM were serial 522-534.
Now only about 4-5 MiG-21UM remain operational, I will not follow with more, because Fidel Castro may get mad, or should I put a Picture of His house in Miramar, Havana, where no one can get to because the whole block is protected by his bodyguards, is great to be a dictator like that, with a swimming pool in the back and a Helicopter platform to be able to escape quickly.
Can any body tell me what version is this Mi-17 and when it was made.
Three things are different to the other helicopter in Daafar service , machine gun in the nose, balistic protection around pilot and copilot seats, light under fuselage. Also the serial number 164 is unique, can any body help?
Another Mi-17 serial 125 with the same updates, these are the only two Daafar Mi-17 with these updates.
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