Forum: F-16 News

UAV's will have IFF just like any normal jet, so ID'ing it wouldn't be difficult at all....

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Boman wrote:

UAV's will have IFF just like any normal jet, so ID'ing it wouldn't be difficult at all....

Maybe the predator series does but there are about 30 different types of UAV's used in the AOR.

Somebody had to be looking at it when it crossed the fence...and that's all I've got to say about that.

Quote:

Maybe the predator series does but there are about 30 different types of UAV's used in the AOR.

Maybe the pilot visually [Link pending approval]'d it. (And if he got close enough to visually [Link pending approval] it then hopefully he used guns to bring it down!)

It is odd that there were only 2 instances of shoot downs throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom & both of them involve victories over UAVs. Guess this is the future of aerial warfare, extremely rare momments of shooting down a UAV that is pratically a "RC toy" plane.
(The first instance was during the lead up to the Iraq war, when the pilot of the Predator UAV thought it was funny to shoot a stinger against a MIG-25 Foxbat but the missile missed & the Mig-25 shot it down with a AA-6 Acrid, which is probably about the size of the Predator it destroyed.)

Operation Iraqi Freedom Air to Air kill record: 1:1(hope that Iranians can send more over the border for target pratice)

The Mig-25 fired first, the Predator operator fired a maverick (or hellfire) missle in response, but the UAV was destroyed before the optically guided missle could hit the Mig 25.

Still it's 1 loss(predator) to 1 victory(Iranian UAV)!

AIM-7's are out of the USAF F-16 inventory.

Cheers,

ViperDude

Boman wrote:

UAV's will have IFF just like any normal jet, so ID'ing it wouldn't be difficult at all....

After some research, your statement is incorrect. Smile

So what would they paint on the side of the aircraft for shooting down a UAV? I'm thinking a video game controller would be appropriate or maybe a keyboard and mouse.

FDiron wrote:

The Mig-25 fired first, the Predator operator fired a maverick (or hellfire) missle in response, but the UAV was destroyed before the optically guided missle could hit the Mig 25.

I am afraid that is not correct according to this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWUR3sgKUV8

At 0:35 you can see the Stinger being fired. No way that is a hellfire or a Maverick, it maneuvers too much to be an A-G missile.

According to Fox news, it was a US F-16 that shot an Iranian UAV about 60 miles inside of Iraq sometime near the end of Feb. I just heard it about 10 minutes ago.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509385,00.html

Whoop!

CNN report:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast ... index.html

LordOfBunnies wrote:

So what would they paint on the side of the aircraft for shooting down a UAV?

Green stars have been pretty standard for AFCENT AOR AA kills. That is, if they even painted anything at all.

In the case of the Viper pilot, it does count as an AA kill for his career total. However, Blue Manned v. Red Unmanned AA kills are still an uncommon event, and definitely not looked as highly upon, as if the pilot had shot down a Fulcrum, etc.

The pilot does deserve a star on the jet, even though it was against an unmanned plane. An AA shootdown in combat against an enemy aerial asset is an AA shootdown, no two ways about it.

Forum: F-16 News

USAF Fighter downs Iranian UAV