The Intense Dogfight Between a U.S. Pilot and an Iraqi MiG

NARRATOR: January 1991, Operation Desert Storm. Colonel Cesar Rodriguez tries to avoid being shot down by an Iraqi MiG-29. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: We assumed that this guy was the biggest, baddest dude on the block, and we had to be on our number one A game to beat them. NARRATOR: The incoming MiG is just seconds away from blowing Rodriguez out of the sky. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: The MiG's radar can see me, and so I go strictly into the defensive mode. NARRATOR: Rodriguez banks left and dives down fast. If he can confuse the MiG's radar, he might have a fighting chance. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: MiG-29 radar is meant to look into a blue sky where there's very little clutter. So I want to force his radar to look down into the ground environment, and now the radar has got to recalculate the math to deliver a weapon. NARRATOR: Rodriguez must escape the Iraqi MiG's deadly grasp or risk losing everything. I'm in 100% survival mode because the enemy is locked onto my airplane. That's as vulnerable as you get in the end air to air dogfight. NARRATOR: Unless his wingman acts quickly, Rodriguez doesn't have a chance. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: At that point I am in the pure defensive mode, and now I turn it over to my wingman, who is about three miles behind me. He sees the same thing that I see. He locks the lead MiG, and then takes up a shot with his AIM-7. NARRATOR: Seconds later, Rodriguez's wing man's heat seeking AIM-7 missile reaches the MiG. [EXPLOSION] The end result was we had one MiG down. Splash one is the radio call that I made. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: Splash! Splash coming out west bound. And now we're trying to figure out what's next. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: What's next is more trouble. The E-3 AWACS alerts Rodriguez to another MiG-29 just 10 miles away. This time, Rodriguez and his wingman won't be caught off guard. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: We have two options. We can turn south and run away, or we can turn north and fight our way through that MiG. And the option that I selected was to fight our way through that MiG. NARRATOR: Rodriguez and the MiG face off in an intense aerial spiral, chasing each other's tails. Suddenly, the MiG-29 flies down toward the desert floor, trying to outmaneuver the F-15's radar. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: At that point, I suspect the MiG felt that I could either be coming in for a gun shot or I could be getting ready to hit him with a missile. NARRATOR: Rodriguez watches the MiG take a hard turn back up, but it's too late to escape the momentum down. COL. CESAR RODRIGUEZ: You could see his after-burners are cooking. He's trying to do everything he can to bring the nose of his airplane through the horizon, but it doesn't happen. He put himself in a no win solution, which ultimately translated into a fireball on the ground. It wasn't until after the final engagement that I started to reflect on, wow, what just happened? Because I knew I was within seconds of being a casualty.

Channel: Smithsonian Channel

Views: 15,567,844

Keywords: TV online, watch, air-to-air, america, Facts, Cesar Rodriguez, wingman, air force, heat-seeker, MIG-29, USA, Iraq, E-3 AWACS, desert, US, heat-seeking, lock, mig, rocket, Documentary, channel, stream TV, radar, Operation Desert Storm, Bronco, video, Episodes, evasive, F-15, OV-10, free tv, missile, AIM-7, Air Warriors, smithsonian, free videos, dogfight, USAF

Id: 5n9pHDH6jQk

Length: 3min 37sec (217 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/rx149]

Garbage overdramatized editing, though.

"Two F-15Cs, piloted by Captains Craig Underhill and Cesar Rodriguez gave chase to a pair of MiG-29s detected by AWACS. The Iraqi aircraft, one piloted by Captain Jameel Sayhood, promptly turned and engaged the two American fighters, and one of the most dramatic dogfights of the Arab Gulf War ensued. The two MiGs and F-15s flew straight at each other, each attempting to visually identify the other. Underhill was facing Sayhood's wingman, while Sayhood himself was facing Rodriguez. Underhill fired an AIM-7 at Sayhood's wingman, scoring a head-on hit and killing the opposing pilot instantly. Simultaneously, Sayhood gained a lock on Rodriguez, throwing him onto the defensive. Rodriguez dove to low altitude in order to clutter Sayhood's radar and break the lock-on, and dropped flares to counter his adversary's infra-red search-and-track. However, after seeing his wingman shot down, Sayhood disengaged and fled to the north. Considering the engagement over, Rodriguez and Underhill turned south to rendezvous with a KC-135tanker in order to refuel, but Sayhood reversed course and set off after them, prompting them to reengage. With the now lone MiG-29 closing head-on with the pair of F-15s, Underhill gained radar lock-on, but did not fire due to a glitch in his IFF interrogator system keeping him from being certain he wasn't about to shoot down a Coalition aircraft. Underhill initially thought he shot down an allied aircraft. Sayhood sliced into the American formation, causing a classic merge. Underhill kept Sayhood locked-on and climbed, while Rodriguez committed to the merge in order to visually identify the opposing aircraft as hostile. As they passed head-on, Rodriguez identified it as an Iraqi, and each pilot turned left to engage the other. Sayhood believed in his MiG's better turning radius and tried to get into a firing position on Rodriguez' tail but failed. Rodriguez outmaneuvered the Mig, managed to get firing position on him and successfully acquired a missile lock. Both aircraft lost altitude through the sustained hard turning, bringing them perilously close to the ground. Fearing that Rodriguez would obtain infra-red lock-on and shoot him down with an AIM-9, Sayhood attempted to disengage using a split-s. Rodriguez didn't follow Sayhood's manoeuver, and observed him eject just prior to his MiG impacting the ground - he'd commenced his escape maneuver too low. It was reported years later by Iraqi sources that the Captain was rescued by some farmers after he broke his leg and evacuated to a local hospital."

[u/legal-beagleellie]

Fireball on the ground that’s me

[u/TinyMan07]

>Heat seeking AIM-7
Come on, Smithsonian, you're better than that!

[u/AlphaLul]

No is gonna mention the “heat seeking AIM 7 missile” ?