Desert Storm - F-16 Pilot Fights for his Life Over Baghdad - Animated

[Music] 72 f-16s take off from qatar and the uae and head towards the tankers waiting for them over northern saudi arabia they're going to hit the altuatha nuclear power plant and research facility in baghdad in what will be the largest single airstrike package of the war so far and the largest f-16 strike in history linking up with their escort of f-15 fighters ef-111 electronic warfare aircraft and anti-radar f4s the aircraft struggled to refuel from their tankers in the low visibility of dense cloud and strong wind the facility is the centerpiece of saddam hussein's nuclear research program in previous years both iran and israel have launched strikes against it but neither was able to deliver the knockout blow in fact they resulted in a massive increase in anti-aircraft defenses in the surrounding area sands a.a guns and smoke generators it's the third day of the air war of desert storm and so far war planners have only launched strikes against targets in baghdad using stealthy f-117s or unmanned cruise missiles fearing the ferocious defenses around the city today is an experiment to see how potent these defenses really are heading north to baghdad after taking on fuel the formation becomes stretched the last four f-16s are ordered back to base because they're now so far behind iraq's radar network has not yet been taken out and so military commanders know that the raid is coming they order that the smokescreen systems of the nuclear facility are triggered package queue approaches the city two-thirds of the formation bank away to hit the primary target at al to ather the others will continue north towards the downtown area to hit the republican guard headquarters iraqi air force headquarters and an oil refinery arriving at the nuclear facility the pilots discover a thick blanket of smoke over the target the ef-111s desperately tried to radar jam iraqi sam sites but there are just too many in three minutes 27 surface-to-air missiles are launched against the raiders and a wall of anti-aircraft cannon fire erupts around them most pilots can't see their aim points through the smoke and so abort their attacks to limit civilian casualties f-16 pilots who do press on to drop their bombs throw their aircraft around and drop flares to evade heatseeker missile shots against them all aircraft light their afterburners to get away as quickly as possible no bomb hits are scored while pilot skill played its part it is a miracle that no aircraft are lost the f-16s over downtown baghdad aren't so lucky major emmett tullier callsign stroke 3 dips below the clouds to spot the oil refinery he has to attack suddenly a cockpit warning alerts him that he's being fired on by a vietnam era sa2 missile stroke 3 defending sa2 he announces over the radio and pulls into a series of high g turns to evade noting that his chaff is not appearing to confuse the missile he pulls a last-second hard break and the sa-2 flies safely past detonating at a safe distance remaining calm but now alone tulia continues his run on the oil refinery hearing chatter from other pilots dodging further sams his targeting computer automatically computes the correct release points of his bombs and his two two thousand pound bombs fall away he turned south to get away from baghdad three new warning tones shriek at tulia and he immediately hears a command over the radio stroke three break right break bright he instinctively obeys just as three sa-3s flash by dangerously close on his left side and explode tulia's wingman major jeff teice has just saved his life other pilots radio frantic requests for his status and after a few seconds he announces strike three egressing southeast stress is audible in his voice now he heads south east for just a few seconds when a warning sounds for an incoming sa-6 stroke 3 defending 6 he screams over his radio he is now panting with the physical strain of the continuous high g turns the sa-6 sticks to him through the turns and julia believes he's about to be hit he lets out a groan as the missile screams past him so close that he hears the rocket motor there's another one stroke three defending again he shouts he's lost so much speed and altitude during the maneuvers that his only chance is now to dive for escape speed this takes him within range of the aa guns on the ground exhausted after six minutes of physical and mental stress tullier finally catches a break the latest sam loses lock on his aircraft and drifts away no more warnings light up and major tullier climbs and heads home major tice who had saved his life with the last second call to break right earlier and another f-16 have not been so lucky tice has taken an sa-3 hit on his way out and captain roberts aircraft crashes on the way home with shrapnel damage both eject and become prisoners of war another aircraft nearly runs out of fuel from other defensive maneuvers an unescorted kc-135 tanker crew dart north into iraq to bring it home when tullia lands in doha his ground crew find absolutely no physical damage to his aircraft tulia is shocked to discover that his chaff and flare dispensers had malfunctioned and that he has just evaded six surface-to-air missiles using maneuver alone the raid is a failure while the oil refinery is put out of action no significant damage has been dealt to saddam's nuclear facility it's lucky that only two f-16s have been shot down the experiment has failed and from now on only f-117s and tomahawks will go to baghdad [Music] right [Music] stroke three defending

Channel: The Operations Room

Views: 1,481,261

Keywords: Time-Lapse, History, Documentary, aircraft, time lapse, animated, war, desert storm, operation desert storm, gulf war, iraq, kuwait, usaf, us air force, saddam hussein, package q, SAM, f-16

Id: H8InuaTRKnY

Length: 6min 59sec (419 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 05 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/_BringTheReign_]

We don’t deserve that channel. Like I am so impressed by their content, especially that gulf war video he made. This one does not disappoint!

[u/Best_Position4573]

DCS is so much fun. Real life would be terrifying. Obviously a certain type of person signs up for it just like a certain type of person rock climbs free solo (without ropes or any safety gear). Neither of those people are me 😛

[u/benteyebrows]

I thought you guys would really like this. It's an amazing bit of footage that I think many here are familiar with. The hard part about watching the footage is picking out exactly whats going on. I think The Operations Room has done a phenomenal job making sense of the fight and adding context to the strike. Hope you enjoy!

[u/tanr-r]

Jeez that is scary. Hard to imagine what it would be like to be in the middle of it like that.