[QUOTE=Tu22m;1943587]

The below is from the Rand study. *Note: In addition to kills listed above, on 24 March 1999 an F-16AM of the Dutch Air Force damaged a Serb MiG-29 with a single AIM-120A. Also on 24 March another Serb MiG-29 was engaged by 2 or more US fighters and successfully evaded 3 AIM-120Cs.

Is that actually the case of a Dutch F-16 damaging a MiG-29?

P.Tankink AIM-120A MiG-29 18106 127.lpe/JRViPVO (Milutinovic OK)

There is only one recorded firing of an AIM-120 from a Dutch F-16 and that was for the above MiG-29 Kill on the 24th March 1999. Major Milutinovic ejected. The damaged MiG-29 on the night of the 24th March that made an emergency landing was flown by Major Dragan Ilic.

Of the six MiG-29s destroyed in the air a seventh was combat damaged. The pilot, Major Dragan Ilic, managed to put his crippled MiG-29 down with an emergency landing at Nis airfield. From Ilic’s combat report from 24th March 1999

“Gallant Knights”. This was published in Air Forces Monthly, January 2002 issue.

I had the signal that I was locked on by an enemy missile. A fireball pushed the plane and the aircraft shook. The cockpit glazing cracked and fogged. I didn’t feel any changes in engine performance and I was thinking how to save the plane. I pointed the plane to my home airfield at low speed, around Mach 0.5. All would have been different if the cracked glazing failed, I would have to had to eject and sacrifice the MiG.

On the 24th March 1999 there were also AIM-7 Sparrow used. Not sure if any other F-15Cs were carrying a mix of AIM-7 and AIM-120s, but might skew the statistics if observers are only thinking that all the missiles fired on the 24th March were AIM-120s?

Captain Mike “Dozer” Shower recounts firing Sparrow during 24th March, 1999.

By 17 miles i have an ID that this is a bad guy, and i call it out! I talk first and shot second, just what your not supposed to do.. So i call Hostile hostile Fox three! and make my first AIM-120 shot at 14 miles. I made sure the AIM-120 was active and then thumbed to and shot an AIM-7. No kidding, i’ve allways wanted to shoot an AIM-7, and that big O’ Sparrow comes off, whoosh! I’m looking down down into the lights of belgrade so i can’t see anything, but i was able to follow the missle motors for a while. I’m ramping down from 37,000ft the whole time. At about 6 miles, and just after the AMRAAM times-out, the target turns right directly into the Beam. This could have been triggered by several things. He could have gotten indication of my radar lock the AMRAAM could have exploded near but didn’t do any damage, who knows, but he does manuver into the Beam. So now he manuvering when the AIM-7 gets there, and it apparently misses also.”

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showpost.php?p=1449948&postcount=27

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=489757&postcount=93

Video at following link.

Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed in a speech he made on the 11th of October, 2012, that Hezbollah was responsible. He reveals that the UAV was of Iranian manufacture and also admits to the 2006 UAV incursion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSFhn8rDr_Y

Jim,

What happens to the balloon after Felix jumps?

After Felix has landed, Mission Control will trigger the separation of the capsule and balloon, so that the capsule can descend under its parachute. A nylon “destruct line” will release the helium so that the balloon returns to Earth. Then, the team will gather the envelope into a large truck, a process that can take several hours.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/technology/high-altitude-balloon/

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

Blue Cross

Bravo24 has it correct in post #11.

It has nothing to do with arms treaties. Enthusiasts do seem to get mixed up and especially in relation to SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) Treaty.

For example the following website has an image of Victor XL162 with a Blue Cross with the caption

Note the blue cross signifying the airframe had to be scrapped under the SALT treaty

Image link.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4P5-tuc4Uno/TzWWcO-CYjI/AAAAAAAAAHw/c91E5bdQq0g/s400/spares%2Brecovery%2Bmanston.jpg

From

http://victorxl231.blogspot.co.uk/p/spares-recoveries.html

The UK is not a signatory to the SALT/START treaty. A similar myth has RAF Phantoms covered by SALT.

The Blue Cross appears on such types as Jet Provosts and as previously mentioned Hunters.

Jet Provost blue cross image links

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/XM386.jpg

http://www.demobbed.org.uk/images/XM404.jpg

http://www.jetprovostfile.org/t3-xm401-to-xm428/

Blue Cross on Buccaneer

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showpost.php?p=1528350&postcount=986

My take on it is that for aircraft to be destroyed under CFE conditions that country would have to have exceeded their allocated quota. Under the CFE treaty (2010 figures) the UK is allowed 900 combat aircraft and 356 attack helicopters. In 2010 the UK declared 417 combat aircraft and 233 attack helicopters. Anything over that ceiling would have to be destroyed as per the CFE guidelines. Jaguars also came under CFE but were obviously not destroyed or disposed of by CFE methods. If the numbers had exceeded the permitted UK quota then those excess aircraft would have to have been destroyed per the guidelines.

http://www.dasa.mod.uk/modintranet/UKDS/UKDS2010/c4/table415.php

http://www.dasa.mod.uk/modintranet/UKDS/UKDS2011/c4/table413.php

With the ceiling numbers I don’t think that the UK has destroyed any type under the CFE Treaty guidelines?

Section VI consists of 4 paragraphs. This Section details the procedures for the reduction of combat aircraft at reduction sites. Section VI specifies three ways by which combat aircraft may be destroyed: destruction by severing (i.e., cutting); destruction by deformation (e.g., bending or crushing); and destruction by use as an aerial target drone. The number of combat aircraft that may be destroyed by use as a target drone is limited to 200 per State Party, but such destruction need not take place at a reduction site (e.g., it may occur at a test range).

Paragraph 1 of Section VI provides each State Party the right to choose any one of the following procedures each time it destroys combat aircraft at reduction sites. The purpose of this provision is to make clear that a State Party is free to pick from the entire menu of destruction options each and every time it elects to destroy a combat aircraft.

Paragraph 2 of Section VI lists the procedures for destruction by severing, as follows:

The fuselage of the aircraft shall be divided into three parts not on assembly joints by severing its nose immediately forward of the cockpit and its tail in the central wing section area so that assembly joints, if there are any in the areas to be severed, shall be contained in the severed portions.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/cfe/text/artbyart/art7.htm

XT288 Buccaneer East Fortune

The flip side, the side that the public does not get to see. The inscription reads along the lines of tanks filled with water. The traces of the Blue cross through the Roundel can still be seen. The blue cross is used by the RAF to denote an aircraft for disposal.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwshack/4503023393/

For those at Cottesmore wondering why the flyover wasn’t lower or over the runway.

Q) EGTT/QROXX/IV/NBO/W/000/020/5244N00039W002

B) FROM: 12/09/29 05:16C) TO: 12/12/29 18:27
E) FORMELY RAF COTTESMORE AD DISUSED/CLOSED FOR ACFT OPS DUE TO
MILITARY GND ACTIVITY. PILOTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO OVERFLY WI 2NM
RADIUS OF 5244N 00039W (KENDREW BARRACKS, COTTESMORE, RUTLAND).
12-09-0720/AS2.
LOWER: SFC

UPPER: 2000FT AMSL

Marko,
The following should be of some assistance. Time will be local.

Departure time: Is planned for 3pm from Doncaster…

http://mxm.mxmfb.com/rsps/wlnk/c/1216/r/212287/e/417

Some timings gleaned from elsewhere on the web which should help the guesswork:

Doncaster: ETD 15:00
Bitteswell
Coventry Airport 15:27 or 15:30
Birmingham Airport
RAF Cosford 15:37
Staverton 16:00
Filton
Cardiff Airport 16:39
St. Athan 16:40
Ross-on-Wye (memorial) 16:45 to 17:20
RAF Halton 17:05 to 17:35
Lincolnshire Area: RAF Cottesmore, RAF Waddington, RAF Scampton
Doncaster: ETA 18:05

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28&start=8925

SA-8? TOR M1?

Didn’t an Iraqi farmer manage to shoot one down with a .303 Lee Enfield back in 2003?

The Iraqi Farmer, Ali Abid Minqash, featured by the Iraq Ministry of Information in the propaganda footage later gave an interview.

Minqash told the paper that he had come across the aircraft in his field early one morning.

“I didn’t shoot down an Apache or anything else. All that happened was that I went to the field, as I usually do early in the morning, and was surprised to find some bodies on the ground.

“I began to rub my eyes to make sure that what I was seeing was true or whether I was imagining it,” he said.

“When I realised that it was really true, I was overcome by fear and rushed to the nearest government post to inform them that there was a plane in my field.

“A large number of [Baath] party members and security men came with me to investigate. They told me that it was an American Apache aircraft and made me stay with them until someone who they said was a senior official arrived. I didn’t know who he was.

“They asked me to say what you have heard on the TV satellite channels – that I shot down the plane with an old gun, a Brno.”

Account from the Apache crew.

http://www.russellstill.com/young.html

The Iraqi propaganda machine tried to use edited footage of the above shot down Apache to claim another Apache later in the conflict.