The REAL Top Gun Battle, Gulf of Sidra 1981 - Animated

[Music] this video is sponsored by skillshare skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of creative classes for anyone who wants to learn new skills and to improve and master their existing ones skillshare can help you make 2022 a year of new learning and personal development investing in yourself so you can achieve the goals you always wanted to achieve aiming to improve on my day-to-day productivity i took this class called master productivity creating a custom system that works delivered by youtuber and entrepreneur thomas frank learning practical skills to increase my productivity the first 1000 of our viewers to sign up using code the operations room or the link in the description will get a one month free trial of skillshare so you can start exploring your creativity today it's the early morning of august the 18th 1981 the us navy's sixth fleet led by the aircraft carriers uss forestal and uss nimitz has arrived in the gulf of sidra off the coast of libya for an exercise the carrier battle groups begin launching e2c hawkeyes followed by f4 phantoms and f-14 tomcats to take up patrol stations intended to shield the exercise area to the south the f-14 is a brand new supersonic jet fighter which has been built with the lessons of the vietnam war in mind and is about to see combat in service of the united states for the first time the forestall and nimitz have been sent to the area for a simple reason to reassert freedom of navigation through the gulf of sidra in 1973 libyan dictator muammar gaddafi claimed the gulf as part of libya's territorial waters and closed the area to international shipping since then the libyan air force has aggressively enforced this policy often firing on u.s aircraft should they stray south of the demarcation line a boundary that qadhafi proclaims is the line of death gaddafi has so far managed to get away with this violation of international law new u.s president ronald reagan is determined to confront the libyan dictator over rights to transit the gulf within one month of taking office in 1981 reagan orders planning for a live fire freedom of navigation or fon exercise in the gulf of sidra in contrast to previous fon exercises which are usually routine and held in friendly waters this one will take place in territory claimed by a hostile foreign nation after months of careful preparation reagan officially approves the plan on august the 1st along with aggressive new rules of engagement which will govern how the us military responds to any provocation when asked how far an american pilot can pursue a hostile aircraft if fired upon reagan responds all the way into the hangar it is under these tense conditions that the naval group begins the exercise in august of 1981. it is not too long before the hawkeyes report large formations of libyan aircraft headed towards the carriers gadhafi is currently on a state visit to yemen leaving his lieutenants in control of the military they have first ordered the american aircraft to leave the area but this request is ignored in response almost every interceptor in the libyan arab air force is scrambled and sent to the gulf of sidra to drive away the us naval forces the hawkeyes have picked up multiple contacts and vector the american combat air patrols to intercept the aircraft before they reach the exercise area lieutenant lawrence maczynski is piloting an f-14 that is part of nimitz's vf41 squadron the black aces his tomcat callsign fast eagle 107 along with his wingman are ordered to intercept a pair of mig-25 fox bats approaching from the south the f-14s go supersonic at mark 2.4 to catch the foxpats before they enter the area while ea6b prowlers and ep-3 orions activate their powerful jammers once the tomcats make visual contacts with the aircraft mazinski's wingman uses the tomcat superior turning ability to get behind the libyan jets while he pulls alongside the lead mig his radar intercept officer in the back seat takes pictures of the startled libyan pilot before flashing the middle finger the migs peel off and return to base the american pilots continue the interceptions of libyan aircraft throughout the day thanks to the hawkeyes providing early warning heavy jamming measures and the tomcat's maneuverability u.s navy fighters are able to intercept and chase off 70 aircraft machinski describes august the 18th as mostly fun and games singling out communicating with the libyan pilots as the highlight the missile exercise is barely affected as u.s naval warships freely sail the gulf of sidra for the first time in eight years unbeknownst to the local commanders the libyan military believes an attack is imminent and its forces have been placed on high alert qadhafi's air force plans for intercept sorties the following day on the second day of operations the forestall and nimitz launched their combat air patrols at 5 45 a.m with the same plan of shielding the exercise area this time mozinski in fast eagle 107 is wingman to commander hank clemen who is flying lead in fast eagle 102. they arrive on station at sunrise and patrol the area for over an hour at 7 15 am clement is just about to lead the pair of tomcats back to the nimitz when his radar intercept officer detects an unidentified contact 80 miles to the south approaching their location the contact is reported to an orbiting e2c but the hawkeye initially fails to receive the transmission due to high radio traffic fast eagles 102 and 107 assume loose juice formation with mzinski placing himself 4 thousand feet above kliman and 2 miles off the lead tomcat starboard wing the bogie also changes course and is now flying directly at the pair of f-14s the american pilots prepare to execute what they call an eyeball shooter intercept with kliman acting as the lead aircraft flying directly at the bandits meanwhile muzinski will maneuver behind the libyan aircraft and lock on with his aim 9l sidewinder missiles he is confident that nothing serious will occur after their easy time the day before as the aircraft fly towards each other kleeman attains visual and is surprised to see not one but two libyan su-22 fitters flying so close to each other that they had appeared as one radar contact at 7 18 am an american reconnaissance aircraft picks up a transmission from one of the libyan pilots announcing i'm preparing to fire just as the tomcats and su-22s are about to merge the lead fitter launches an aa2 atoll missile at kleeman however the missile fails to track due to the fast closing distance commander kleeman calmly instructs majinski you go for the guy that shot at us i'm going for the wingman the su-22s attempt to take evasive maneuvers trying to cover each other's vulnerable rear yet the f-14 is too fast and agile kleeman gets behind one of the fitters which is silhouetted against the rising sun not wanting his heat-seeking sidewinder to lock onto the sun gleeman waits 10 seconds before launching his missile the sidewinder tracks all the way into the su-22's tail and makes a direct hit causing the libyan pilot to lose control and eject meanwhile mazinski is maneuvering for a shot on the leading su-22 when he is informed of kleeman's kill unsure whether he should continue to pursue he asked lehman want me to shoot my guy down to which clemen responds that's affirm shoot him down however mozinski realizes that one of his sidewinders has malfunctioned and will not fire leaving him with only one operational missile to make matters worse his tomcat's short-range radar fails and he is unable to get radar lock on the su-22 the libyan jet makes a hard turn to starboard and mazzinski follows pulling six g's in the process he fires his last sidewinder but the missile initially does not track towards the target as mazinski switches to guns the sidewinder locates the fitter and pulls a 45 g turn towards it it detonates and blows the su-22 out of the sky after the second fitter is splashed the nimitz's combat information center finally transmits to the two pilots 102 107 you are clear to defend yourself to which kliman responds and this is 102 107 2 enemy kills the entire engagement has lasted just 3 minutes and 44 seconds the pair of tomcats turn north and head back towards the nimitz although more libyan aircraft attempt to disrupt the missile exercise there are no more incidents and the sixth fleet successfully completes the freedom of navigation mission qadhafi is embarrassed by the shoot-down of two of his aircraft and promises revenge the next time americans cross the line of death a promise that he will attempt to honor on multiple occasions in the next few years commander clement and lieutenant majinski have scored the first aerial victories for the united states since the vietnam war the f-14 tomcat has also proven its ability as a lethal air superiority fighter commander clemens fast eagle 102 is now on display at the commemorative air force museum in midland texas [Music] you

Channel: The Operations Room

Views: 1,342,363

Keywords: Time-Lapse, History, Documentary, aircraft, time lapse, animated, war, us navy, f-14 tomcat, maverick and goose, top gun, muammar gaddafi, su-22 fitter, gulf of sidra, libya, ronald reagan

Id: YpkYvPx9iEI

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 22 2022