My first thought, as well.. Have Iraqi pilots ever trained in Bangladesh?

about the only place we can be sure that Iraqi pilots DID NOT train in are Israel/Syria/Libya. The rest of the world… even in Ethiopia…

during war with Iran 1-2 combat losses of MiG25PDS and 3-4 combat losses of MiG25RBS.

Note that during the 1991 gulf war the MiG25s performed the following tasks.

1- defence of nuclear installations and saddam’s palaces
2- covering for the fighters and transports evacuating to Iran.

It was not 100% successful in either role, but neither was it unsuccessful. The MiG25s would escort the aircraft to the Iranian border and engage with F15s attacking.

here’s Bell Huey in a different colour tone…

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some more…

AS202 bravos on the ground and in the air.
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The F-15s were receiving updates from the AWACS and were themselves moving to engage the Mig-25s. There was no way the Mig-25s were going to get behind the F-15s in that scenario.

the Iraqis didn’t know that 😉

I am glad you now agree that those aircraft were shot down, but given that the US AWACS was tracking the Mig-25s and relaying the information to the F-15s you can’t really attribute the outcome to a GCI error as there was never any chance those Mig-25s would have been able to get behind the F-15s.

Look at the first video I linked to again… the AWACS first passed the location of the Mig-25s to the F-15s when they were “60-80 miles out.”

Perhaps the Migs really were seeking to approach the F-15s from behind, that is a reasonable enough thing to attempt, but with the F-15s themselves turning to face the Migs there wasn’t any chance of that happening.

The GCI gave them the command to turn into the F15s too early. so instead of being behind them, they were facing them and were closing in… a bad situation to be in. Completely a GCI mistake (from the Iraqi perspective).

anyway, hopsalot. having checked back. you are indeed right. Iraqi AF did indeed lose 2 MiG25s due to the GCI giving them bad vectors and instead of turning in behind the F15s the GCI turned them in Before them, with disastrous consequences.

It was easy for the Iraqi’s to violate the No Fly Zone due to the fact that they were never patrolled 24/7. The Iraqi’s new this and could pick and choose when there were no fly days. It was no great feat to plan and mount incursions when there was nothing there to challenge them.

A Pentagon briefing during 2000 highlighted the situation:

http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/2000/09/iraq-000916.htm

that’s the US perspective certainly 😉