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"Bill Silvey" wrote in message ... "Gene Storey" wrote in message "Bill Silvey" wrote The case of the U.S.S. Stark, the Saudis never even got off the ground. Their 5 minute alert birds were told to stand-down and let the Iraqi return without a fight. The AWACS crew created an international incident in labeling the Saudis "...a bunch of cowards." If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Saudi Arabia *is not* an ally. Not that I would deny that Saudi Arabia is not a US ally (they are foremost the ally of their corrupt royals, feeling to sit above all the others, and only then anything else). But, hell, they had an agreement with the Iraqis, according to which the IrAF was free to use parts of their airspace - or even to land aircraft in emergency at Saudi airfields. According to their own ROEs, there was no way in hell they could stop that Mirage F.1EQ-5, except it would still have been armed while trying to land at one of their air bases. Anything else would be against the agreement between Ryadh and Baghdad. In the case of the downing of an Iranian F-4E (and damaging of the other), in 1984, the situation was different because there were no such agreements with Tehran. Quite on the contrary, the Iranians were about to attack a ship inside the Saudi territorial waters. The situation was also different because one of the involved F-15s was a D, with a US instructor in the rear seat. The US officers aboard the US E-3A patrolling nearby ordered the two pilots - which were on an in-flight refueling training sortie (with USAF KC-10As) - to intercept the Phantoms, but the pilots were reluctant, as neither was fully qualified on the F-15s. Then the US officers on the AWACS and the US instructor in the rear cockpit of the F-15D pushed them to go - and off they went. So, the obvious lesson from these situations is that you can't expect the others to always do what is in US interest: the US is also not doing things that are not in US interest. Tom Cooper Co-Author: Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988: http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php and, Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat: http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585 |
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