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SUMMARYIn what would come to be called the Bekaa Valley Turkey Shoot, 96 Israeli fighters and a squadron of UAVs faced off against 100 Syrian fighters backed up by 19 surface-to-air missile launchers in 198 It was one of the largest jet battles ever foug…
In 1982, 100 Syrian fighters supported by 19 surface-to-air missile launchers engaged 96 Israeli fighters and a squadron of unmanned aerial vehicles in what became known as the Bekaa Valley Turkey Shoot. It was one of the largest jet battles ever fought.
Israel has a history of fighting with its neighbors, especially from the 1960s through the 1980s. The Israel Air Force suffered some harsh lessons from a series of minor skirmishes with Egypt after losing several fighters to surface-to-air missiles.
But the IAF learned their lessons and on Jun. 9, 1982, they attacked 19 Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries deployed near their border. In the first two hours of fighting, the IAF destroyed 17 of the missile batteries with no losses. Then, things really went nuts.
In order to stop the 96 F-15s, F-16s, and F-4s attacking the SAM sites, the Syrians launched 100 MiGs. The Israelis detected the approaching fighters while operating an E-2C Hawkeye airborne warning and control system aircraft. It began feeding instructions to the IAF fighters.
29 Syrian Air Force fighters were destroyed by the more sophisticated Israeli fighters, who used both Sidewinder heat-seeking and Sparrow radar-guided missiles.
The MiG-21, like this one being flown by the Serbian Air Force, was one of the primary fighters used by the Syrian Air Forces during the conflict. Photo: Wikipedia/claudiu_ne2000.
But the IAF wasnt done. There were still two missile sites they wanted gone. So, they returned Jun. 10. Once more, the majority of the Syrian Air Force ascended to welcome them, and the Israeli Air Force forcefully struck them, destroying an additional 35 Syrian aircraft while sustaining no casualties among the Israelis.
The stunning victory was due to a number of factors. Although the Syrians had also mishandled their situation, the Israeli pilots had benefited from excellent training and extensive combat experience.
The Syrians fed their pilots instructions from a ground control station that couldnt communicated due to Israeli jamming. In an Air Power Journal article, a Western military observer of the battle says, “I watched a group of Syrian fighter planes fly figure-eights. They just flew around and around and obviously had no idea what to do next.”
Lt. Gen. Leonard Perroots, director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency at the time, trashed the lazy deployment of Syrian missile sites. “The Syrians used mobile missiles in a fixed configuration; they put the radars in the valley instead of the hills because they didnt want to dig latrines–seriously.”
The conflict between the two countries continued through Jul. 1982. In over a month of fighting, Israel lost only two jets while Syria lost at least 87.
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The Bekaa Valley Turkey Shoot: a Dogfight with Nearly 200 Fighter Jets
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