Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)

In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitter attack aircraft fired upon and were subsequently shot down by two American F-14 Tomcats off the Libyan coast.

Background
In 1973, Libya claimed the Gulf of Sidra as a closed bay and part of its territorial waters. This prompted the United States to conduct Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations in the area since the claim did not meet the criteria established by international law. Libya often confronted US forces in and near the gulf, and on two occasions its fighter jets opened fire on US reconnaissance flights off the Libyan coast; once in the spring of 1973  and again in the fall of 1980. FON operations intensified when Ronald Reagan came to office; in August 1981, he authorized a large naval force, led by USS Forrestal and Nimitz, to deploy to the disputed area. The Libyan Air Force responded by deploying a high number of interceptors and fighter-bombers. Early on the morning of 18 August, when the US exercise began, at least three MiG-25 'Foxbats' approached the US carrier groups, but were escorted away by F-4 Phantom IIs from Forrestal and F-14s of VF-41 and VF-84 from Nimitz. The Libyans tried to establish the exact location of the US naval force. Thirty-five pairs of MiG-23 'Floggers', MiG-25s, Sukhoi Su-20 'Fitter-Cs', Su-22M 'Fitter-Js' and Mirage F1s flew into the area, and were soon intercepted by seven pairs of F-14s and F-4s. US Naval Intelligence later assessed that a MiG-25 may have fired a missile from 18 miles away at US fighter aircraft that day.

Incident
On the morning of 19 August, after having diverted a number of Libyan "mock" attacks on the battle group the previous day, two F-14s from VF-41 "Black Aces", Fast Eagle 102 (CDR Henry 'Hank' Kleemann/LT David 'DJ' Venlet) (flying BuNo 160403) and Fast Eagle 107 (LT Lawrence 'Music' Muczynski/LTJG James 'Amos' Anderson) (in BuNo 160390), were flying combat air patrol (CAP) to cover aircraft engaged in a missile exercise. While in their CAP pattern, the F-14s detected two Sukhoi Su-22 Fitters taking off from Ghurdabiyah Air Base near the city of Sirte. The two F-14s set up for an intercept as the contacts headed north towards them. Only a few seconds before the crossing, at an estimated distance of 300 m, one of the Libyans fired an AA-2 "Atoll" at one of the F-14s, which missed. Then the two Sukhois split as they flew past the Americans; the leader turning to the northwest and the wingman turning southeast in the direction of the Libyan coast. The Tomcats evaded the missile and were cleared to return fire by their rules of engagement, which mandated self defense on the initiation of hostile action. The Tomcats turned hard port and came behind the Libyan jets. The Americans fired AIM-9L Sidewinders; the first kill is credited to Fast Eagle 102, the second to Fast Eagle 107. Both Libyan pilots ejected. Prior to the ejections, a US electronic surveillance plane monitoring the event recorded the lead Libyan pilot report to his ground controller that he had fired a missile at one of the US fighters and gave no indication that the missile shot was unintended. The official United States Navy report states that both Libyan pilots ejected and were safely recovered, but in the official audio recording of the incident taken from USS Biddle, one of the F-14 pilots states that he saw a Libyan pilot eject, but his parachute failed to open.

Less than an hour later, while the Libyans were conducting a search and rescue operation of their downed pilots, two fully armed MiG-25s entered the airspace over the Gulf and headed towards the US carriers at Mach 1.5 and conducted a mock attack in the direction of USS Nimitz. Two VF-41 Tomcats headed towards the Libyans, which then turned around. The Tomcats turned home, but had to turn around again when the Libyans headed towards the US carriers once more. After being tracked by the F-14s' radars, the MiGs finally headed home. One more Libyan formation ventured out into the Gulf towards the US forces later that day. Fast Eagle 102 (BuNo 160403) is presently stored at the Commemorative Air Force headquarters in Midland, Texas awaiting restoration.