Samurra Air Battle

Samurra Air Battle
Part of the air campaign of the Persian Gulf War
Date 30 January 1991 Location Khan Bani Saad, Iraq Result Indecisive Continued evacuation of Iraqi Air Force Continued patrolling of Iraq-Iranian border by USAF
Belligerents
United States	Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Lt. Col. Randy Bigum Capt. Thomas Dietz 1st Lt. Robert Hehemann 1st Lt. Lynn Broome	Capt. Mahmoud Awad Capt. Mohammed Jassim as-Sammarai
Strength
"Xerex 31": 2 F-15C "Xerex 33": 2 F-15C	No. 96 Sqn: 1 MiG-25 No. 97 Sqn: 1 MiG-25
Casualties and losses
1 F-15 damaged[1]	None

Operation Samurra was an operation by the Iraqi Air Force during the Gulf War to decisively engage USAF F-15Cs utilizing MiG-25 jets, and break the "wall" of F-15s that the Coalition had established along Iraq's border with Iran. It demonstrated the last true offensive operation of the Iraqi Air Force before grounding their air assets in an attempt to preserve them for future use. Through careful planning and coordination, two MiG-25 jets successfully caught two American F-15 fighters off guard and engaged them in a decisive dogfight. After several minutes of aerial maneuvering, and several fired missiles, the Iraqi jets returned to Tammuz Air Force Base undamaged, and the F-15s returned to Saudi Arabia, albeit with one damaged.

Prelude

By 19 January it had become apparent to Iraqi leadership that they could not engage the coalition air forces openly. Saddam Hussein had ordered most of his air assets to be conserved inside of bunkers in an attempt to save them for future use against the coalition. Consequently, Coalition sorties began targeting aircraft hangars and shelters to destroy the Iraqi Air Force on the ground. Between 17 and 27 January, 117 Iraqi aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Hussein ordered his air force to evacuate their aircraft to Iran temporarily, to be used in future sorties (Iran instead interned the aircraft).

Flying in flights of four, Iraqi military aircraft retreated east across the country routed through Baghdad airspace due to its heavy air defenses. To counter this, the US Air Force established a "wall" of F-15s along the Iranian border to shoot down any aircraft attempting to flee. In order to facilitate the retreat of its air force, Iraq sought to shoot down these patrolling F-15s.^[2]

Plan

Planning for Operation Samurra had begun as early as 18 January, when the Iraqi Air Force was bolstered by a successful operation the night before whereupon they intercepted several EF-111 "Ravens" that were jamming Iraqi radars. Subsequently Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners were able to wreak havoc on a now unprotected sortie of F-15E bombers.

The plan involved having two MiG-25 aircraft from different directions vectored onto an isolated group of F-15s. If the F-15s tried to attack one of the MiGs, the other would be in a flanking position which would enable it to down the F-15s easier. Iraq didn't evacuate their MiG-25 "Foxbats" in order to retain them for this mission. Monitoring Coalition AWAC and F-15 frequencies, Iraqi forces waited for the proper situation to begin the operation.^[2]

Battle

Finally on January 30, an Iraqi intelligence unit intercepted communications that one of the patrols, "Xerex 31" was approaching "bingo fuel" which necessitated an hour and a half round trip to an aerial tanker. This left just the two F-15 jets "Xerex 33" piloted by USAF Capt. Thomas Dietz, and 1st Lt. Robert Hehemann to patrol the the skies. Recognizing the opportunity, two MiG-25s were scrambled from two separate air bases. Capt. Mahmoud Awad took off from Qadessiya Air Base, while Capt. Mohammed Jassi as-Sammarai took off from Tammuz Air Base. After engaging a false target, both pilots were directed to Dietz and Hehemann by Iraqi air traffic control.

The two flights immediately engaged one another, with Hehemann firing two missiles, one of which was a dud. At the same time as-Sammarai locked Hehemann up and fired an R-40 missile, which went ballistic after as-Sammarai was forced into evasive maneuvers to avoid Hehemann's missile. Nevertheless, as-Sammarai's missile found it's target and caused damage to Hehemann's left engine, but his F-15 remained flyable. Meanwhile Dietz engaged Awad, attempting to fire several missiles at him. After Dietz's aircraft's missiles failed to fire three times, Awad managed to get a radar lock on Dietz's F-15 throwing him onto the defensive. Dietz attempted to bug out to the east. Hehemann, still engaged with as-Sammarai, fired another missile in an attempt to down the Iraqi MiG, and then found himself locked up by the now unoccupied Awad. Hehemann narrowly avoided Awad's missile with the use of chaff and flares. After this, as-Sammarai and Awad fled west on full afterburner back towards Tammuz Air Base.

At the same time, "Xerex 31" was returning from the aerial tanker and had been monitoring the air battle. Pilots Lt. Col. Randy Bigum and 1st Lt. Lynn Broome decided to direct their F-15s in an attempt to intercept the two MiG-25s. Unfortunately, a high altitude crosswind forced them over Baghdad, which was the most heavily defended airspace in Iraq and the two were subsequently locked onto by Iraqi gunners. Bigum would later admit he didn't notice the drift because he and his wing-man were determined to score a MiG kill.^[3] Despite this, they still managed to lock up as-Sammarai and Awad and each loosed a missile at them, both of which missed. Trying again, Bigum fired an AIM-7 missile at Awad, but Awad managed to land his aircraft before the missile arrived. Bigum fired on last AIM-7 at as-Sammarai as he was on final approach, but lost the radar lock on his aircraft as he landed. The missile impacted the ground about ten feet from as-Sammarai's left wingtip. Bigum and Broome bugged out of the area before they were shot down by SAMs which still had them locked up.^[2][4]

Result

The Iraqi Air Force first credited as-Sammarai with a "possible" victory which was later upgraded to "confirmed" after a Bedouin smuggler discovered wreckage of an F-15 very close to where Iraqi radars had allegedly lost track of a falling F-15 on January 30.^[2] Later Iraqi government documents show two F-15s recorded as being shot down in this engagement.^[5] However, there is no record of an F-15 being shot down on January 30 in the area west of Baghdad.^[6] Nonetheless, this is the closest an F-15 has ever come to being shot-down in air-air combat. It retains a perfect record to this day.^[7]

Operation Samurra was the last offensive operation of the Iraqi Air Force during the Gulf War. By mid-February all Iraqi Air Force activity had effectively ceased as the Coalition completed their dominance over the skies, and not a single offensive sortie was even attempted during the ground phase of the war.^[2] Most of the MiG-25's in Iraq's arsenal survived the war, and went on to serve until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq when they were buried rather than face the US Air Force again.

Dietz and Hehemann would go on to be the highest scoring fighter pilots of the Gulf War, with three air-air kills apiece by the wars end. Bigum and Broome finished the war with no air-air kills, with the Samurra becoming the closest they would get.

See also

Air engagements of the Gulf War
List of Gulf War pilots by victories

References