On 4 January 1989, two Grumman F-14A Tomcats of the United States Navy shot down two Libyan-operated Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23ML Flogger-G which the American aircrews believed were attempting to engage and attack them, as had happened eight years prior during the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident. The engagement took place over the Mediterranean Sea, about north of Tobruk, Libya.

Background

In 1973, Libya claimed much of the Gulf of Sidra (south of Latitude 31° 30′) as its territorial waters and subsequently declared a "line of death", the crossing of which would invite a military response. The United States did not recognize Libya's territorial claims and continued to challenge the line, leading to military hostilities in August 1981 and March 1986. A terrorist attack in West Berlin which killed two American soldiers and one Turkish civilian on 5 April 1986 was linked to Libya and prompted the U.S. to carry out retaliatory air strikes against targets in Libya ten days later.

Attempts by Libya to obtain weapons of mass destruction were of great concern to U.S. President Ronald Reagan's administration since it viewed Libya as a state sponsor of terrorism. Tensions between Libya and the U.S. were running high after the latter accused Libya of building a chemical weapons plant near Rabta in the fall of 1988. During a December 1988 press interview, Reagan indicated the potential for military action to destroy the plant. The possibility of a U.S. attack caused Libya to increase its air defenses around Rabta and its state of military readiness throughout the country.

Engagement

thumb|A simplified depiction of the incident

On the morning of 4 January 1989, the aircraft carrier was sailing toward the eastern Mediterranean Sea for a scheduled port visit to Haifa, Israel. The carrier was over north of Libya and had aircraft operating roughly north of the country. Aircraft operating from the Kennedy included several flights of A-6 Intruders on exercises south of Crete, two pairs of F-14 Tomcats from VF-14 and VF-32 conducting combat air patrols, and an E-2 Hawkeye from VAW-126 providing airborne early warning and control. He gave the American air crews a special briefing emphasizing their rules of engagement. Using their onboard radars, the intercepting F-14s began tracking the MiG-23s when the Libyan aircraft were away, at an altitude of and traveling at . Unlike some previous aerial encounters in which Libyan pilots were instructed to turn back after detecting an F-14's radar signal sweep their aircraft, the MiG-23s continued to close on the American fighters with a head-on approach.

As both pairs of aircraft converged, the E-2 and other U.S. eavesdropping assets in the area monitored radio communications between the Libyan aircraft and their ground controllers. Seven seconds later, the MiG-23s turned back into the American fighters for another head-on approach and were descending in altitude.

Aftermath

thumb|A MiG-23 silhouette was painted onto Gypsy 202 after the engagement; it was removed prior to returning from cruise.

The following day, Libya accused the U.S. of attacking two unarmed reconnaissance planes which were on a routine mission over international waters. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called for a United Nations emergency session to take up the incident. Despite these findings, Aspin said the self-defense claim by the U.S. was still justified due to the continued acceleration of the MiG-23s as they closed the distance with the F-14s and Libya's history of firing first. Although Tomcat BuNo 159610 downed the Libyan MiG-23 as a VF-32 F-14A model Tomcat, it returned from that deployment and was entered into the F-14D re-manufacture program, later serving in a precision strike role as a F-14D(R) with VF-31.

See also

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  • Hainan Island incident – an incident involving aircraft between the U.S. and China
  • Operation Odyssey Dawn
  • Ouadi Doum air raid
  • Pan Am Flight 103

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Gillcrest, Paul T. Tomcat!: The Grumman F-14 Story. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1994.
  • Stanik, Joseph T. El Dorado Canyon: Reagan’s Undeclared War with Qaddafi. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2003.
  • Brief description of the incident
  • January 16, 1989 Time Europe story, with details of the radio broadcasts and times.
  • Air aces record
  • VF-32 photo gallery
  • Audio recording of the engagement
  • – Chemical Reaction, Tom Cooper.

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