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November 3, 2015

US Deploys F-15s To Turkey

Obama has put on his big boy pants and is upping the ante in Syria. We'll see if Putin calls him.
The Pentagon is sending F-15Cs—supposedly to fight the ISIS war. But the jets only have air-to-air weapons, and ISIS has no planes. Which means the real adversary is Russia.

The U.S. Air Force is deploying to Turkey up to a dozen jet fighters specializing in air-to-air combat—apparently to help protect other U.S. and allied jets from Russia’s own warplanes flying over Syria.

Officially, the deployment of F-15C Eagle twin-engine fighters to Incirlik, Turkey—which the Pentagon announced late last week—is meant to “ensure the safety” of America’s NATO allies, Laura Seal, a Defense Department spokesperson, told The Daily Beast.

That could mean that the single-seat F-15s and the eight air-to-air missiles they routinely carry will help the Turkish air force patrol Turkey’s border with Syria, intercepting Syrian planes and helicopters that periodically stray into Turkish territory.

But more likely, the F-15s will be escorting attack planes and bombers as they strike ISIS militants in close proximity to Syrian regime forces and the Russian warplanes that, since early October, have bombed ISIS and U.S.-backed rebels fighting the Syrian troops.
Story here.

Su-27

Russia has deployed Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" jets to Syria. Both the F-15 and the Su-27 are highly maneuverable, air superiority aircraft with similar capabilities and armament. The F-15 has had a much greater exposure to aerial combat than the SU-27 which has seen very limited engagement in Angola, Eritrea and Chechnya. The F-15 shot down over 30 Russian aircraft (mostly Migs) during the Gulf War. Of course American pilots did not face Russian pilots in those encounters.

F-15

This could get real interesting. The first F-15s were first deployed in 1972; there have been four upgrades. The F-15E is the latest variant (1988); F-15C's are being sent to Turkey. The Su-27 is a mid-80's Russian product.

4 comments:

Kid said...

F-15s are seriously outdated. Maybe on par with Russian Su-27's don't know. I read an interview with a pilot of F-15, who moved to F-16 and he said the F-15 is absolutely useless compared to F-16. FA-18 is even better than the 16.
My take is this is just disposing of some aircraft that would otherwise end up in an Arizona desert junkyard otherwise. So what the heck. As you say IS don't fly and the Russians (also according to this F-16 pilot) are untalented. Almost as bad as the French.

sig94 said...

The F-15's came out a few years before the Navy's F-14 Tomcat (1974)... and the Tomcats are gone.

Sunnybrook Farm said...

Obama keeps sending the signal that he isn't serious about any of this.

Doom said...

He might as well have sent boxing gloves. If he sent these to Turkey, without pilots, it proves he is exactly the type of political leader the most severe of conservatives critics believe him to be.

If so, then he sent useless planes for subpar pilots, against relatively better pilots with similar planes in a scenario that will never exist because even with the Turk government becoming muslim, they would no more cross Putin than they would honestly fight ISIS. The only thing that can be said about this white elephant gift is that it didn't really include a direct means by which to attack Kurds. That war... probably an oversight by this admin, or they fear that more attacks by Turks could mean a full scale attack by Kurds soon or in time which would end Turkey as a muslim nation. I think Kurds may end up developing another, but Christian based, Israeli like nation over there. Especially if we get a prez who is on the American, and Christian, side in world politics.

Middle Eastern muslim nations are notorious for falling before any real threat. Israel, well armed and put-upon Christians, and others absolutely clobber islamic armies. The only reason they are allowed to be is that they produce the oil more cheaply and their lands are otherwise too costly to be worth the effort. Otherwise they wouldn't even exist as a people.