Woody,

re. references:

-- Mike Spick: in article "Odd Couple", published in AirForces Monthly
magazine, volume April 2004 (p.94 thru 98) stated (citate from p.98,
paragraph 3):

"Never Clashed
The two (meaning MiG-21 and F-5E; my note) never clashed in close
combat...."

During the Iran-Iraq War there were several dozens of air combats between
IrAF MiG-21MF/bis and IRIAF F-5Es. All were fought at close ranges because
neither aircraft was equipped with BVRAAMs. To keep the long story short,
there is an Iraqi MiG-21MF-pilot with four confirmed kills against Iranian
F-5Es scored during the first month of the war (all kills are known to the
last detail, including date, time, place, names of involved crews and their
fate, weapon used etc.). Another example: there is also an IRIAF F-5E-pilot
who claimed four IrAF MiG-21s shot down during a single engagement; three of
these are confirmed (again: full data available).


-- Yefim Gordon: in one of his newest books, "Sukhoi Su-7/-17/-20/-22;
Soviet Fighter and Fighter-Bomber Family", (ISBN 1 85780 108 3) published by
Aerofax earlier this year, spends exactly two sentences to describe the
deployment of Iraqi Su-20/22s in the war against Iran. As follows:

1.) Page 127:
"Iraq used the Su-20 and Su-22 fairly successfully in the war against Iran
in 1980-88.

2.) Page 150:
"Together with their fixed-geometry stablemates (the Su-7BMKs) they were
actively used in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988; amont other things, they
staged chemical attacks against Iranian troops, using bombs filled with
nerve agents."

There is not a word about Iraqi Su-22M-2/-3Ks equipped with Kh-28s, Kh-29s
and SPS-141 ECM-pods supplied from East Germany being used against Iran or
about their performance, or any other "special" weapons tested on this type
during that war. Not a word about the fact that Su-20/22s were IrAF
warhorses of that conflict, that they flew over 20.000 combat sorties,
suffered quite some losses (over 30 of these are registered down to the last
detail - including extensive pictorial evidence of wreckage) etc...


-- Maj. Ronald Bergquist (USAF) published "The Role of Airpower in the
Iran-Iraq War", while working as research associate on the Airpower Research
Institute, at Maxwell AFB. The first print was in 1982; I've got a copy from
the second print run, published by Air University Press, in 1988.

This was probably the best book to this topic published until 2003.


2. Aside from SPEAR, I've never heard of many of your sources.

OK, here the full data of the last batch of stuff I've got:

- NAVOPINTCEN SUITLAND MD message 250021Z Jul 87
- NAVOPINTCEN SUITLAND MD message 102038Z Apr 88
- NAVOPINTCEN SUITLAND MD message 152005Z Jun 88
- SPEARTIP 014-90, IRAQ FIGHTER-INTERCEPTOR CAPABILITIES
- NAVOPINTCEN memo of 6 Jul 88 (the last would be highly interesting for
anybody researching about the downing of IranAir Airbus by USS Vinncennes).


3. You tend to attempt to baffle with size.

Well, sorry; I do not attempt anything else but to explain. And this can
often not be done within a single sentence.

--
************************************************** ***********************
Tom Cooper
Freelance aviation journalist

Author:
- Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S7875

- Arab MiG-19 and MiG-21 Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S6550

- Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S6585

- African MiGs
http://www.acig.org/afmig/

- Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
************************************************** ***********************