On 25th March 2014, the Syrian mighty MiG-25 recorded its first appearance since years, in action over the eastern countryside of Hama governorate, exactly over Eqeirbat town. After that, the SyAAF kept sending this interceptor to that area as recorded on 28th March, 2nd April and 4th April.
On 4th April, remnant of R-40 Air-to-Air missile -as can be seen above- was found unexploded in the suburbs of Eqeirbat confirming the incident which was witnessed by a local, reporting the aircraft launched pair of missiles which were 'the time they left the aircraft' slower than those usually fired from pods (unguided rockets).
Here above, I publish this EXCLUSIVE video which is considered the proof of that incident took place on 2nd April showing the twin-tailed jet firing a pair of R-40 missiles against ground targets in an action could be registered a unique of its type in the whole air combat history!!
P.S This post is preferably to be read in conjunction with Oryx's POST about the same incident.
Not totally unique...American F-102 Delta Daggers used heat seeking AIM-4 Falcons as AGM's during the Vietnam war.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_F-102_Delta_Dagger
Patric, thanks for your head-ups, that was the heat seeking missile, what about the IR seeker one? How can you explain then how one of the missiles exploded midair?
DeleteIR and heat seeking missiles are the same thing, a "Heat Seeking" missile is just an incorrect way to describe an IR missile.
DeleteAs far as a missile exploding in mid-air, my guess is that would be caused by using a radar guided missile. Since the missile is being fired at the ground, which it is not designed to do, its seeker will receive an extremely large radar return from the earth. Since the radar return from the ground will obviously be much larger than that of an aircraft, it might confuse the missile's seeker into thinking that it is near an enemy target, which would cause the weapon's proximity fuse to detonate.
Also remember that the Russians produced both IR and Semi-Active Radar Guided versions of the R-40. According to wiki, it was standard practice for Russian Mig-25's to carry one IR and one Radar guided missile, firing the IR missile first so that it is not confused by its counterpart's rocket engine heat. If the Syrians are doing the same thing, then it should not be surprising that apparently one missile (probably the Radar variant) is exploding in mid-air, while the other (probably IR variant) hits the ground.
It's also worth noting that for an air-to-air missile, the R-40's warhead is HUGE! It weighs in at 154 lbs of explosives! The warhead is over 19 times heaver than the S-8 air-to-ground rocket's warhead. So if the Syrians were looking to re-purpose an old, obsolete air-to-air missile as an air-to-ground rocket, the using the R-40 actually makes sense just because of the large amount of explosives it carries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-40_(missile)
Patric, many thanks for your valuable explanation! Our audiances here will make use of your contribution to understand the reason why SyAAF would try using such weapon not the way it was designed for. Also why the other missile exploded midair.
DeleteI was promised to recieve exclusive photos of the remnant of the other missile, but the unstability of comm. revented this being happen...so far
it may be S-25 missile :\
ReplyDeleteSorry Bassel, but it is truly an R-40 missile
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Deletehttp://im77.gulfup.com/d2gk9s.jpg
Deletewhy not kh 25 ml ??? it is very close in shape ,,,, and kh23 and 25 were used in Syria
ReplyDeletewatch the pic dude ...
ReplyDeletehttp://im77.gulfup.com/d2gk9s.jpg
Sorry to disappoint you again Bassel, but this S-25 is not used by SyAAF and the SyAAF MiG-25 are not wired to carry such weapon, moreover, refer to the images here to discover that it is an R-40:
Deletehttps://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/ru_missile_acrid_02.jpg
http://forum.valka.cz/files/aa_6.jpg
Don't forget that the large fins are apparently been detached from the missile fuselage probably when it hit the ground, as we can still see the axis of each fin..
The writing on the side is also a dead give-away for being an R-40.
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