Eagles Of the Gulf
Part II

Aircraft Briefings

by J.D. Webster

France

Dassault F.1

Like its predecessor, the Super-Entendard is a transonic, swept-wing strike jet with a secondary capability as an air to air fighter. Improvements over the IVM include adding a radar, upgraded avionics and weapons capabilities, a better engine and longer range.

It has two 30mm Defa cannon and can carry IR missiles but its Agave radar is optimized for the surface attack role using the Exocet anti-ship missile. The Super-Entendard is best known for its role in sinking the HMS Sheffield during the Falklands war. A half dozen Super-Entendards were used for a short while by Iraq in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war.

Super Entendard

This is Dassaults latest entry into the field of Naval aviation. The Super-Entendard was the replacement for the earlier Entendard IVM attack jet which was designed in the early sixties along conventional lines for daylight attack.

Soviet Union

MiG-23BN Flogger-F

Egyptian MiG-21

The widely used and exported Flogger has become the Fishbed of the Eighties. As Russia's first multi-role fighter which entered service in the 1970's, it has made use of various new technologies including: swing wings for high performance at different speeds, a powerful radar with look-down capability and the capability to use forward firing radar missiles which the earlier MiG fighters could not do.

The Flogger-F model is ground attack variant combining the engine, wings, body and cannon of the MiG-23 fighter version with the nose, cockpit and avionics of the MG-27 attack version. Apparantly this was done to ease maintenance and training problems by providing commonality of parts for countries also operating the fighter version. Iraq is known to operate a large number of MiG-23BNs as well as some fighter versions.

The Flogger is a mixed success story. It is capable in what it was designed to do, but limited compared to other fighters designed in the West at the same time.

SU-17/20 Fitter-C

The SU-17/20 series of Fitters retain the basic fuselage structure of the earlier SU-7 Fitter, but the wings are modified so that the outer panels could be swept forward for improved low speed performance and shorter take-off and landing runs. This feature, along with a newer more powerful engine gave the Fitter-C a much more respectable load lifting capability. The SU-17 has two additional fuselage stations for bombs and its wing pylons were made stronger for larger loads.

The SU- 20 is a slightly degraded version for export. One major improvement over earlier Fitters is that four pylons are wired for air to air missiles giving it a good self defense capability and a secondary fighter capability.

The Fitter has always been a well behaved airplane, liked by its pilots. Rugged and honest if nothing else, and possessed of a better safety record than the Floggers. More potent variants have been built as the SU-22 series but the SU-17/20s were the first to be exported to the middle-East.

Israel

I.A.I. Lavi

The Lavi project, which was canceled in 1988 after only three prototypes were built, was an attempt by Israel to produce a world class strike-fighter incorporating the latest in technology. With fly-by-wire controls, advanced computer weapons aiming, sophisticated ECM and a high-agility canard planform, it indeed looked promising, but like the American F- 20 Tigershark, it ran afoul of politics, cost overruns and substantial delays.

Had it been produced in the early eighties, "it coulda been a contender". But by 1988, the substantially cheaper F-16 had been improved to the point that it could do most of what the Lavi could and it was already in production. Fiscal realities forced the Israeli govenment to drop the axe on it. The Lavi (Young Lion), is included as a speculative what-if.

Eagles Of The Gulf Part II (Subpart A)

Eagles Of The Gulf Part II (Subpart A) (AP # 11)

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© Copyright 1990 by J.D. Webster
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