ONUC 1960-62- UN Ethiopian F-84 Thunderstreaks vs Katanga mercs in Fouga Magisters
In Magisters!? Alright...I want to hear more about this, preferably with some sources I can read. Because Magisters are one of my favourite aircraft. I got to sit in one at a local airshow a few weeks back, and I'd like to know just what the circumstances were.
1971- USN F-4 Phantoms vs Indian AF Ajeets, Hunters, Mig-21s over Bangladesh
If you can come up with a logical scenario, I'm willing to hear it.
1991- USAF F15 Eagles on CAP during Op PROVIDE COMFORT down Iraqi Mi-24 Hinds attempting to napalm Kurdish refugees
This is an interesting one. According to
Battle Ready, by Gen. Tony Zinni and Tom Clancy (Zinni was the senior EUCOM commander for Provide Comfort), there were a fair amount of countries running CAPs during Provide Comfort that could've run into Iraqi air units: the USAF, RAF, and Armee de l'Air all had units on station, as well as the Turkish and Italian Air Forces.
Any of them had the means and ability to engage whatever the Iraqis could bring up, and all of them had blocks of time where they were alone on CAP duty.
I'm basing this assumption on the article
Balkan Rats in Air Forces Monthly from Nov. '99, when there is an indepth discussion on the deployment of national forces for CAP duties. Normally, a Combat Air Patrol is kept as close to one-nation as possible, so as to unify the ability of the aircraft to respond to threats.
1995- Croatian Mig-21s vs Serb Oraos, Galebs, Jastrebs during Op STORM
This also, would be very interesting. The Oraos and Galebs were sitting ducks for our F-16MLUs and F-15s. It would be interesting if they went up against something they might just be able to get a lucky shot off on. The Fishbed is still an outperformer against a ground attack aircraft like the Orao, but it's not so far out of it's league like the Viper and Eagle were. Especially in the range of radar and weaponry.
Also, the Bosnian and Kosovar air wars were another intersting time where smaller airforces could have conceivably bagged kills. The Dutch air force proved this when one of their F-16MLUs managed an air-to-air kill against a Serb MiG-29 Fulcrum during a CAP mission.
The Dutch, Spanish, Canadians, Italians, and Spanish all flew CAP missions at one time or another over Kosovo, and at any point there were chances they could've been challenged.
The Canadians themselves picked up hostile aircraft on their radars twice during bombing missions that jinked out of range. (
Air Forces Monthly, Nov. '99)