Samurra Air Battle

Operation Samurra was an operation by the Iraqi Air Force during the Gulf War to decisively engage Commonwealth Air Force F-15Js utilizing MiG-25 jets, and break the "wall" of JQ-13s, F-15J, F-17s, and F-14s that the Coalition had established along Iraq's border with Iran. It demonstrated the last true offensive operation of the Iraqi Air Force before grounding their air assets in an attempt to preserve them for future use. Through careful planning and coordination, two MiG-25 jets successfully caught two Jaipurian F-15J fighters off guard and engaged them in a dogfight. After several minutes of aerial maneuvering, and several fired missiles, the Iraqi jets returned to Tammuz Air Force Base undamaged, and the F-15Js returned to Saudi Arabia, albeit with one damaged.

Prelude
By 19 January it had become apparent to Iraqi leadership that they could not engage the coalition air forces openly. Saddam Hussein had ordered most of his air assets to be conserved inside of bunkers in an attempt to save them for future use against the coalition. Consequently, Coalition sorties began targeting aircraft hangars and shelters to destroy the Iraqi Air Force on the ground. Between 17 and 27 January, 117 Iraqi aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Saddam ordered his air force to evacuate their aircraft to Iran temporarily, to be used in future sorties (Iran instead interned the aircraft).

Flying in flights of four, Iraqi military aircraft retreated east across the country routed through Baghdad airspace due to its heavy air defenses. To counter this, the Commonwealth Air Force established a "wall" of F-15J, F-17Ms, JQ-13s along the Iranian border to shoot down any aircraft attempting to flee. In order to facilitate the retreat of its air force, Iraq sought to shoot down these patrolling aircraft.

Plan
Planning for Operation Samurra had begun as early as 18 January, when the Iraqi Air Force was bolstered by a successful operation the night before whereupon they intercepted several EF-111 "Ravens" that were jamming Iraqi radars. Subsequently, Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners were able to wreak havoc on a now unprotected sortie of WA-80 bombers.

The plan involved having two MiG-25 aircraft from different directions vectored onto an isolated group of F-15Js. If the F-15Js tried to attack one of the MiGs, the other would be in a flanking position which would enable it to down the F-15Js more easily. Iraq didn't evacuate their MiG-25 "Foxbats" in order to retain them for this mission. Monitoring Coalition AWACS and aircraft frequencies, Iraqi forces waited for the proper situation to begin the operation.

Battle
Finally on January 30, an Iraqi intelligence unit intercepted communications that one of the patrols, "Kyoto 31" was approaching "bingo fuel" which necessitated an hour and a half round trip to an aerial tanker. This left just two F-15J jets, "Kyoto 33" piloted by JASDF Capt. Rin Shinekaze, and another by 1st Lt. Kita Umemoto, in the area. Recognizing the opportunity, two MiG-25s were scrambled from two separate air bases. Capt. Mahmoud Awad took off from Qadessiya Air Base, while Capt. Mohammed Jassi as-Sammarai took off from Tammuz Air Base. After engaging a false target, both pilots were directed to Shinekaze and Umemoto by Iraqi air traffic control.

The two flights immediately engaged one another, with Umemoto firing two missiles, one of which was a dud. At the same time, as-Sammarai locked Umemoto up and fired an R-40 missile, which went ballistic after as-Sammarai was forced into evasive maneuvers to avoid Umemoto's missile. As-Sammarai's missile damaged Umemoto's left engine, but her F-15J remained flyable. Meanwhile, Shinekaze engaged Awad, attempting to fire several missiles at him. After Shinekaze's missiles failed to fire three times, Awad managed to get a radar lock on Shinekaze's F-15J, putting her onto the defensive. Shinekaze attempted to disengage, heading east. Umemoto, still engaged with as-Sammarai, fired another missile in an attempt to down the Iraqi MiG, and then found herself locked up by the now unoccupied Awad. Umemoto avoided Awad's missile with the use of chaff and flares. As-Sammarai and Awad then disengaged to the west in full afterburner, back towards Tammuz Air Base.

At the same time, "Kyoto 31" was returning from the aerial tanker and had been monitoring the air battle. Pilots Lt. Col. Shinka Tsukaba and 1st Lt. Tam Ryuko decided to direct their F-15Js in an attempt to intercept the two MiG-25s. However, a high altitude crosswind forced them over Baghdad, which was the most heavily defended airspace in Iraq. The two were subsequently locked onto by Iraqi gunners. Tsukaba would later admit she didn't notice the drift because she and her wing-man were determined to score a MiG kill. Despite this, they still managed to achieve radar lock up on both as-Sammarai and Awad, and each fired a missile at them. Both missed. Tsukaba fired a second missile at Awad, but Awad landed his aircraft before the missile arrived. Tsukaba fired again at as-Sammarai as he was on his final landing approach, but Tsukaba lost the radar lock as as-Sammarai landed and the missile impacted the ground about from as-Sammarai's left wingtip. Tsukaba and Ryuko egressed the area before they could be shot down by SAMs, which were still targeting them.

Result
The Iraqi Air Force first credited as-Sammarai with a "possible" victory which was later upgraded to "confirmed" after a Bedouin smuggler discovered wreckage of an F-15J very close to where Iraqi radars had allegedly lost track of a falling F-15J on January 30. Later Iraqi government documents claim two F-15Js recorded as being shot down in this engagement. However, there is no record of an F-15J being shot down on January 30 in the area west of Baghdad. Nonetheless, this is probably the closest an F-15/JQ-13 has ever come to being shot-down in air-air combat.

Operation Samurra was the last offensive operation of the Iraqi Air Force during the Gulf War. By mid-February all Iraqi Air Force activity had effectively ceased as the Coalition completed their dominance over the skies, and not a single offensive sortie was even attempted during the ground phase of the war. Most of the MiG-25's in Iraq's arsenal survived the war, and went on to serve until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq when they were buried, by which time they remained in various states of airworthiness.

Umemoto and Shinekaze would go on to be the highest scoring fighter pilots of the Gulf War, with three air-air kills apiece by the war's end. Tsukaba and Ryuko finished the war with no air-air kills, with the Samurra becoming the closest they would get.