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Desert Storm GB coming up soon!


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Back to the Tomcat. i ordered a Steel Beach early gun vent from Sprue Brothers earlier this week. and I have decided on building the "Queen of Spades" with the Hasy 1/48 F-14A kit and Figtertown decals.

Sweet. :D That will look great along with 'Cat Sn*tch Fever' that I am doing.

Steve

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For the Alpha Jet guys, found an interesting little tidbit about QEAF AJ's escorting Mirage F-1's to Kuwait and back during the war.

REPUBLICAN GUARDS

After that first QEAF escort mission, the squadron flew a weekly escort mission, but with fewer F-16’s. The normal US/QEAF package was four F.1’s and two F-16’s. Sometimes the F-16’s would work as forward air controllers and mark the target for the F.1’s, and sometimes the F-16’s would only escort. Whatever the case, the F-16 flight lead would always be the package commander. The limited range of the F.1 assured that the mission targets would be no further north than Kuwait City.

As the war progressed, the QEAF Alpha Jets joined the F.1’s, and to everyone's surprise, they made it all the way to Kuwait and back. There were no attempted shoot-downs of the F.1’s, but there were many occasions that the F.1’s were intercepted over the Gulf. It was only through the F-16’s keen radar lookout and frequent announcing of friendly F.1’s over the Gulf that none were lost to friendly fire.

This excerpt came out of an article published in Air Forces Monthly

Ok folks, had a nice tea session today with a QEAF Col. that was part of the air operations out of Doha AB during Desert Storm. He says the Alpha Jets never escorted the F-1's because they were too slow, had no RADAR, and no in flight refueling capability (short range even with small external tanks), and their weapons would be ineffective in air combat. He did say they were and are still used for maritime patrol duties, during Desert Storm they would carry Belouga cluster bombs on same pylons the external tanks were usually mounted on while on patrol (not sure why). They would take off same time the F-1's would (maybe leading to the assumption that they were escorting) and basically patrol around off the coast in case an F-1 had to ditch in the sea (search and rescue) or to report/intercept Iraqi naval incursions. The QEAF has a good archive of pictures, but they are very strict with releasing them to the public.

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Ok folks, had a nice tea session today with a QEAF Col. that was part of the air operations out of Doha AB during Desert Storm. He says the Alpha Jets never escorted the F-1's because they were too slow, had no RADAR, and no in flight refueling capability (short range even with small external tanks), and their weapons would be ineffective in air combat. He did say they were and are still used for maritime patrol duties, during Desert Storm they would carry Belouga cluster bombs on same pylons the external tanks were usually mounted on while on patrol (not sure why). They would take off same time the F-1's would (maybe leading to the assumption that they were escorting) and basically patrol around off the coast in case an F-1 had to ditch in the sea (search and rescue) or to report/intercept Iraqi naval incursions. The QEAF has a good archive of pictures, but they are very strict with releasing them to the public.

neat, very informative. I guess that means they never dropped any weapons in combat then?

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Ok folks, had a nice tea session today with a QEAF Col. that was part of the air operations out of Doha AB during Desert Storm. He says the Alpha Jets never escorted the F-1's because they were too slow, had no RADAR, and no in flight refueling capability (short range even with small external tanks), and their weapons would be ineffective in air combat. He did say they were and are still used for maritime patrol duties, during Desert Storm they would carry Belouga cluster bombs on same pylons the external tanks were usually mounted on while on patrol (not sure why). They would take off same time the F-1's would (maybe leading to the assumption that they were escorting) and basically patrol around off the coast in case an F-1 had to ditch in the sea (search and rescue) or to report/intercept Iraqi naval incursions. The QEAF has a good archive of pictures, but they are very strict with releasing them to the public.

Would love to make contact with the Colonel - as I was also at Doha Air Base during Desert Storm. The entire QEAF was incredible to work with - and I had the opportunity to work with everyone from Flight Operations of 7 and 11 Squadrons, to the Machine Shop, to the Parachute Shop, to Aircraft Maintenance to the Fire Department and Crash Recovery. Without their assistance it would have been a LOT more difficult for us to have been as successful as we were.

My memory is the same in that the Alpha Jets flew coastal patrol duties during the war. There was a fear that the Iraqis would be able to slip patrol vessels down the Gulf and make attacks on Coalition vessels, along with land and sea targets (mostly oil facilities). The Alpha Jet pilots that I spoke with at the time were pretty confident that using their underwing rocket pods and the centerline 30mm gun they could 'process' any threats that came their way - especially if they were working in concert with the QEAF's Exocet-armed Westland Commandos.

Mike

These should probably go over in the 'Inspiration and Reference' thread, but this is where the conversations was...

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