In the early days of December 1980 a single F-14 took off from Khatami
Air Base in Esfehan. The pilot was patrolling and scanning the sky over
the Persian Gulf about 60 to 70 miles west of Bushehr at an altitude of
about 3 to 4 thousand ft. ,when ground radar advised the F-14 pilot of
multiple boogies closing fast toward him. His aircraft was too far out
to send in any back up help, so ground radar told the pilot you are on
your own and good luck.
The pilot turned around towards them knowing he had a disadvantage in
numbers. By now the F-14 and two boogies were head to head about 20
miles apart. The crew got a Phoenix Missile lock at about 10 miles,
although it was a close range for phoenix. The pilot went ahead with
fox1, he fired an AIM-54 phoenix. Following the smoke path of the
phoenix he saw a ball of fire from the wing of MiG-21 that was
breaking-up. Moments later a splash down from pieces of MiG-21 were
visible in the ocean. In the mean while F-14 pilot observed the second
MiG-21doing a hard G-turn away from the fire ball since the 2 MiGs were
flying too close together. He was going back toward Iraq. The F-14 in
pursuit could not get any radar lock on the second MiG-21 before he
went super sonic.


Given a 180 turn at 10NM while the Turkey is closing, I think the Mig could
easily have been run down. And there's no problem with locking a target in
the rear hemisphere, supersonic or not.

Submitted by IRANIAN F-14 Pilot

Maybe some Tom-drivers in this forum will comment, but I've got to
think that in a head-to-head pass with a system lock at ten miles
there is no possible way that the AIM-54 could function.


It's well inside Vmin for a AIM-7E-2 and wouldn't be a viable shot for
an AIM-9J, P, or M.

I think your memory is cloudy. 10NM is nicely within the AIM-7 envelope.
It's also in the heart of the AIM-54 ACM Active mode envelope IIRC.

And, inside ten miles, even a MiG-21 can be easily acquired visually.

Head-on @ ten miles? Not with these eyes when they were 20/15 and on a good
day. Of course, the T-38 (and to a very slightly lesser degree, the F-5)
were more difficult still.

Sorry, I've gotta throw a bull-**** flag on this story.

Sorry, but while the story may be false, the LARS aren't.

R / John

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com