Attack on H-3

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Operation H-3
Part of: First Gulf War
Map of the attack
Map of the attack
date April 4th 1981
place Iraq
output Iranian success
Parties to the conflict

Iraq 1963Iraq Iraq

IranIran Iran

Troop strength
unknown 8 McDonnell F-4
4 Grumman F-14
2 KC-135
2 KC-33A
losses

at least these aircraft were destroyed:
4 MiG-21s
4 helicopters
8 MiG-23s
3 Antonov An-12s
3 Tupolev Tu-16s
5 Sukhoi Su-17s
2 Dassault Mirage F1

No losses

The attack on H-3 denotes a military operation by the Iranian Air Force in the First Gulf War against the H-3 airfield of the Iraqi Air Force on April 4, 1981.

In order to be protected from Iranian air raids after the beginning of the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein moved his heavy bombers of the type TU-22 , TU-16 and fighter planes of the type Su-20 and MiG-23 as far away as possible, close to the Al-Waleed air force base the Jordanian border.

The Iranian Air Force did not plan the approach over Iraq, but first along the Turkish , then along the Syrian border. Eight aircraft of the type McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II should carry the bomb load, four Grumman F-14 provide escort protection from Iraqi interceptors and two refueling aircraft of type Boeing KC-135 and Boeing KC-33A for the air refueling care without a Return would not have been possible due to the distance. The Iraqi air defense did not expect an Iranian attack, so that the Iranian planes were able to fly to the base several times.

The Iranian Air Force was able to destroy 46 Iraqi aircraft without any losses of its own in this operation. The attack on H-3 was after the Six Day War (Israeli Air Force versus Egyptian Air Force), the air strike that destroyed the most aircraft in numbers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. iiaf.net/stories accessed on December 26, 2012
  2. Jubin Goodarzi: Syria and Iran, Diplomatic Alliance and Power Politics in the Middle East, IBTauris Verlag 2006, ISBN 978-1-84511-127-4 , p. 45
  3. Douglas Kupersmith: The Failure of the Third World Airpower, 1993 (PDF; 645 kB) accessed on December 26, 2012

Coordinates: 32 ° 56 ′ 0 ″  N , 39 ° 45 ′ 0 ″  E