I'd like to see F-4 vs MiG-23, just to make the odds more even.
That is interesting. I'm reminded of the Green Leader mission, when they told the Zambian Air Force to stay on the ground while the Canberras were over the farm where ZANLA was based.
In what sense? Where would that have happened? It did in a few instances in '73 with the Israelis and Arab air forces.
Perhaps some ex-USAF F-4 phantoms go to South Africa? That would do it, because Cuban and Angolan MiG-23s frequently got into it with SAAF Mirage F1s and Atlas Cheetahs over Angola and Namibia.
I think another good possibility for dogfights was Operation Opera, in 1981, when Israel destroyed the Iraqi nuclear facility, flying over Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the process.
The Israelis probably would have just turned back if they had been intercepted over Jordanian airspace, but what's more interesting is if they are intercepted over Saudi or Iraqi airspace. The Saudis were taking their Lightnings out of service in preparation for receiving 60 F-15Cs in August (the Israeli strike force was composed of 8 F-16As and 6 F-15As), while the Iraqis had recently received shipments of Mirage F1s and MiG-25s. What's interesting is that if they had dogfighted for any extended period of time, regardless of the outcome, they would have been forced down over Saudi Arabia due to lack of fuel . . .
I don't think Lightnings were ever involved in direct combat anywhere.
That's correct but one did shoot down a Harrier, intentionally.
Unfortunately, the Georgian air force had no fighters, so it couldn't have.Perhaps the South Ossetian War could have had Georgia vs. Russian dogfights.
Buh? Was that a weapons system test or something?
The Harrier pilot ejected because of some system fault or other but the plane carried on flying. Not knowing where it might end up a Lightning was scrambled to put it out of it's misery.
The Harrier pilot ejected because of some system fault or other but the plane carried on flying. Not knowing where it might end up a Lightning was scrambled to put it out of it's misery.
That's...god damned...crazy.
I've never heard of such a thing.
It was in 1972 when the Gutersloh Battle Flight of probably 92 Sqn's F2As were scrambled when a Harrier suffered an engine shutdown and the force of the pilot ejecting caused the engine to restart. The Harrier then continued to cruise along towards the Inner German Border and the Lightnings were sent to dispatch it avoiding any awkward diplomatic repercussions.
Sounds like a similar story to that MiG-23 that crashed in Belgium in 1989, except the Russians didn't shoot the thing down.