Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
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| Gulf of Sidra Incident | |||||||||||||
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| Date | 1981 | ||||||||||||
| Place | Gulf of Sidra, Mediterranean Sea | ||||||||||||
| Result | U.S. victory | ||||||||||||
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In 1973 Libya had claimed much of the Gulf of Sidra as its territorial waters and subsequently declared a "line of death", the crossing of which would invite a military response. As part of its ongoing Freedom of Navigation activities in support of 12 mile (22.2 km) territorial waters practices the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was operating near the line of death.
On the morning of the 19th, two VF-41 Black Aces F-14As, Fast Eagle 102 (CDR "Hank" Kleeman/LT D. Venlet) and Fast Eagle 107 (LT "Music" Muczynski/LTJG "Amos" Anderson), were flying combat air patrol to cover aircraft engaged in a missile exercise. An E-2A Hawkeye gained radar contact with two Fitters which had left Okba Ben Nafi Air Base near Tripoli. The Fitters were heading towards the Tomcats and the lead Fitter fired an AA-2 Atoll short range heat seeking missile at the Tomcats. The Tomcats evaded and were cleared to return fire.
Muczynski engaged the lead Fitter and shot it down with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. Kleeman engaged the wingman and shot it down with another Sidewinder. The official United States Navy report states that both Libyan pilots ejected and were safely recovered.
The international tensions and dogfighting incidents seen in the movie Top Gun (1986) were drawn in part from this incident.
According to a transcript from the USS Biddle, the Fitters were shot down before the controller was even sure that the F14's had been fired upon. They did not receive clearance, but they were forced to defend themselves after being fired upon.
See also
- Gulf of Sidra incident (1989), another case where US jets shot down Libyan jets.
External links
- [Description of the incident]
- [Air Aces record]
- [US Department of State Country Study of Libya], reporting that both Libyan pilots survived. See "Encounters with the United States" section.
- [The audio recording from the dogfight and a short text transcript. Engagement running at 5 minutes and 46 seconds, note that it's not the best audio quality]
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