Foxbat Tales: The MiG-25 in Combat by Guardia Mike

Author:Guardia, Mike [Guardia, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magnum Books
Published: 2020-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4:

From Babylon to the Subcontinent

S addam Hussein, the President of Iraq, rose to power in 1968 following the Ba’ath Party revolution. As he ascended to the presidency, however, Saddam ruled Iraq with a brand of brutality reminiscent of Hitler and Stalin. Consolidating his power into a dictatorship, he seemed poised for a long, prosperous rule…until his fortunes changed in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.

Although technically allies, the Iraqis and Iranians had never fully trusted one another. Border disputes between the two nations had been ongoing for years. And since the death of Egyptian President Gamal Nasser in 1970, both Iraq and Iran had been jockeying to become the dominant force in the Middle East. After the Shah of Iran’s downfall, however, Saddam Hussein took warning of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s rhetoric. Saddam, and many within his Ba’ath Party government, were Sunni Muslims. The majority of Iraq’s citizens, however, were Shiite Muslims—just like Khomeini and his disciples. Fearing that the Ayatollah’s rhetoric would galvanize Iraq’s Shiite majority, the “Butcher of Baghdad” launched a preemptive invasion of Iran on September 22, 1980. Simultaneously, Saddam had hoped to take advantage of the instability following the Shah’s exile, and seize key petroleum fields along the Iranian border. For the next eight years, the ensuing Iran-Iraq War would cost thousands of lives and end in a bloody stalemate.

Like his counterparts in Libya and Syria, Saddam had garnered close ties with the Soviet Union. In 1971, he signed an official Treaty of Friendship with the USSR, granting him access to the latest in Soviet fighters and weaponry. Throughout the 1970s, Saddam steadily grew the size of the Iraqi Air Force, equipping it with modern fighters such as the MiG-23, Su-22, and eventually the MiG-25 Foxbat.

Saddam was already familiar with the Foxbat, having seen it during its high-speed flyovers of Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Turkey. In fact, during the reign of the Shah, Iranian F-4 Phantoms regularly tried to intercept the MiG-25 during its many incursions into Iranian airspace. Not coincidentally, however, the Soviet Air Force discontinued its Iranian flyovers after the Shah acquired the F-14 Tomcat. Seeing what the MiG25P and MiG25R could do, Saddam solicited the purchase of both variants for the Iraqi Air Force.

By the early 1980s, Saddam’s air force had received 19 MiG-25PD and PDS variants, along with nine MiG-25RBs, and seven MiG-25PU trainers. The MiG-25PD and PDS versions were concentrated in the No. 96 Squadron at al-Taqaddum Air Base. Some sources, however, indicate that these MiG-25 interceptors belonged to the No. 1 Fighter/Reconnaissance Squadron—purportedly staffed by the best pilots in the Iraqi Air Force, supplemented by Soviet attaches. The MiG-25RBs, on the other hand, belonged to the No. 17 Fighter/Reconnaissance Squadron. By 1986, these RB-variant Foxbats were upgraded to the newer RBT standard. Throughout the course of the war, the Iraqi Air Force activated three additional MiG-25 squadrons—No. 84; No. 96; and No. 97.

During the opening volleys of the conflict, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) scrambled every available asset, taking flight to intercept the Iraqi MiGs and Sukhois.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.