hiya

this is still verry much a work in progress so bear with me 🙂 there is an acig article around, but (can i say this?) its a bit ‘loose’ 😆

su-7BMKs and UBK?s were delived to Afghanistan under Daouds govt around 1969. these were natural metal finish at this stage and were based at bagram at this time along with MiG-21PFs.

The bagram based Su-7s are notible for attacking the presidential palace in 1978 (with Daoud in it) with rockets (120mm) and cannon fire during the coup by the PDPA

later on it seems the the su-7 were redeployed to shindand as part of the 321 Fighter-Bomber regiment; as the attack regiment based at bagram recieved newer su-22s.

Aparently these aircraft were active during the soviet war in afghanistan, though its kinda questionable: shindand was aparently offlimits to afghans during the soviet occupation (what that specificaly means is still a mystery!) and the soviet union supplied large numbers of the superior Fitter family.

it seems the DRAAF relocated atleast some of its training duties to the south, though im not sure what happned(if anything) to the air force training academy in Mazar-I-sharif during this time, though aparently that area did defect away from the Govt later on. By the 1980s most aircraft were camoflauged in either a 2 tone brown scheme, or a 3 tone brown/tan/green scheme.

The su-7s of afghanistan occupy the 400 range of serials going as high as 489 and seem to be painted in a red colour. the DRAAF roundel is similar to the mig-17s in that it features a skinnier star and narrow bands, quite different to the markings found on the majority of MiG-21s from further in the north.

Alot of the Su-7s still reside at Shindand AFB in a fairly intact condition, wearing DRAAF markings: seeming to indicate they were in an inoperable condition around 1992 (if not significantly earlier as they carry what i consider to be earlier markings) an exeption to this is a baremetal Su-7 found at Bagram wearing (for ease of sake) “northern Alliance” markings, indicating atleast a couple of these aircraft were operating after 1992 stage.

another interesting su-7 is the gate guardian in the Herat area, from what i remember its got a 060 serial (which inless made up would indicate it possibly is a early delivered example as 2 digit serials are unique to afghan mig-21PFs and early Sukhois) and wearing 2 Atoll missiles (only time ive seen an AAM on an afghan aircraft) and a rather fiticious paint scheme.

other notible su-7 events are in 1983 an afghan Su-7 defected to Dal Bandin AB, Pakistan, as did another su-7 at an unknown time. one of the su-7 defectors was a Capt. Mohammed Nabi Karinzai defected with his su-7 in ’86

sorry the aboves a bit of a mess, havent had time to sort it all out from what ive accumulated!!!

hope that helps somewhat, if u have questions let me know, the above info is subject to change as corrispondance comes in 😉

regards
Raymond

Very, very, thank you for the useful info Raymond. What happened with the Su-7 defectors? I have pics of Afghan Su-22 and Mig-21 defecting to Pakistan and now at the Air Force Museum. But i dont see photos of Su-7.

Regards from Spain.

Another afghan wreck. Anyone knows more about afghan Su-7?

A single-seater from Iraq.
I suspect this photo is at a museum or at some sort of gate guard.

(There is another well-known Su-7 at the Cairo “victory” museum, too)

Not from Iraq I think. Most probably european origin. Now in Usa museum. Painted after arrival in fake iraqi markings.

The story about Blackbirds missions over, or best, near Soviet Union borders is still, in many points untold. In the “hotest” days of cold war, the soviets, carefully monitored the flightphat of every Blackbird sortie from UK, towards Murmansk area o the Baltic sea. Remember that, in the soviet doctrine, the interceptors was “directed” to their targets from ground radar stations, and week after week, month after month, these stations recorded a lot of information about direction, speed, hight and duration of the Blackbird flights.

Also, Foxbats were used “as Blackbirds”, to test tactics to shootdown a real SR-71, over the Soviet Union. The soviets believed after close examination of the Blackbirds flightpaths, that a shootdown was posible using “various planes” located a different areas in the same route of the Blackbird. Each plane has his prope “launch window”, and the Blackbird at Mach 3.0 cant turn on time to evade a missile. In some ocassions this tactic was sucessful, but in the last moment, the order to shootdown never arrived, due political considerations. The Blackbird was over the sea near the frontier, not deep inside of Soviet Union, and one impact a Mach 3.0. disintegrated the plane over the sky, and the soviets wants a near complete plane in his soil. Not 5mm. fragments under the sea.

Yes i agree. No Blackbirds were shootdown over Soviet Union, but.. the victory in aerial warfare not was only a shootdown. If your opponent abort the mission, you win also. Nobody knows, at the present, the number of failed or aborted Blackbird missions near the Soviet Union, and when the Mig-31 becomes operative, the Blackbird career in Europe, ended. I remember a Blackbird picture taken from a Mig-25 published in AFM… and yes, i think that “others” still are clasiffied.

Regards from Spain.

Additional info. The Bear J was intercepted in 2003 by a Lakenheath F-15. In clearer shots you can make out the ‘LN’ tail. Those Lakenheath Eagles were on det in Iceland.

Very thank you for the additional info.

¿What carriers this Bear under the wing? 😀 😀

Not quite sure what happened here. An ex-Yugoslav Air force F-86 flying alongside Il-18.

Sorry it seems a Dc-4/Dc-6 series aircraft. Il-18 engines configuration are different.