I got this via e-mail, so I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it’s extremely funny nonetheless:
In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten-minute “heads up” if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.
This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type of aircraft, and points of origin and destination.
I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai.
The conversation went like this:
Iranian Air Defense Radar: “Unknown aircraft, you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.”
Aircraft: “This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.”
Iranian Air Defense Radar: “You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace, we will launch interceptor aircraft.”
Aircraft: “This is a United States Marine Corps F/A-18 fighter. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!”
Iranian Air Defense Radar: *total silence*
No related posts.
I’ve seen this several times before…. I don’t know the veracity of it either, but either way, the entire Iranian Air Force (that is, what is operable) could PROBABLY be shot down by a handful of F/A-18s, better yet, F-16s (designed for the job) for F-22s (Go Air Force) or JSFs (if they ever get off the ground) or hell, even a bunch of F-4s from the 50s could PROBABLY do it. Sure the Iranians have F-14s (obsolete), and a handfull of Russian and Chinese fighters, and a ridiculous version of the F-5 (built, sadly, to sell to poor countries, but one we should field none-the less in its F-20 form, but I digress), but do any of them work? If the best thing they can field are a handfull of decent Russian and Chinese fighters (All of which would get their asses kicked without Russian or Chinese Pilots, NONE of whom have recent combat experience, and none of whom have the number of flight hours of a typical U.S., Canadian, German, UK, Austrialian, Taiwanese, Japanese, blah blah blah pilot has…), it would be like target practice… I have been in simulators designed to deal with these threats almost 20 years ago, and I, an untrained non-pilot, shot them down with guns, blind, in the dark with only half my instruments…
One word…. Toast.
In otherwords, true story or not, we would kick the living shit out of Iran in an air war. So it might as well be true….
I imagine the pilot talking in muffled speech to the starving Iranian controller as the Marine scarffed down a big fat old Reuben with thick-cut pastrami and extra saur kraut….
I still love this post…