 |
| photo by defencenet |
An incident between Greek and Turkish “COMAO package” air fighters almost triggered a “code red” today, but was avoided at just the right minute thanks to the composure and professionalism of Hellenic Air Force pilots. According to a breaking news report the Turkish military attempted an ambush by setting up»bait" with F-4 Terminators that were operating a virtual attack on two Greek islands. Obviously the Hellenic Air Force got wind of this and sent off air fighters to the area to curb the attack.
Four F-16s, covering the F-4s, apparently waited for the Greek air fighters to emerge. When the Greek air fighters finally got to the scene they took the Turkish fighters by surprise since they were at a higher altitude than what the F-4s operate from. All four F-16s, said a rush report on defencenet were fully armed. Two Greek Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 hurried to the area from the 331st Squadron of Tanagra to meet them and were apparently also armed with a mixed load of air MICA IR and EM missiles.
The Hellenic Air Force had of course detected the Turkish air fighters early on by a warning system from the time they took off from their air force bases (the F16s from Balıkesir and the F-4s from Eskisehir).
The Greek Mirage 2000-5 air fighters apparently climbed to the same height as the Turkish fighters and went directly towards the Turkish F-4s which were in place for bombing.
It was a rock and roll air dogfight after this, but the two Greek Mirage fighters were not alone: A further two F-4 AUP air fighters that had taken off from Skyros and that belong to the 339th Air Force Squadron based at Andravida joined the fight armed with a powerful AGM-68GY radar (one of the best systems of its sort in use by the Hellenic Air Force today). With the skill of our Hellenic pilots they and with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles they were able to lock the two Turkish F-16 which continued to move at high altitudes, as well as the unarmed F-4s that were making virtual bombings of the islands of Fournous and Agathonisi.
The situation turned extremely dangerous after this and a further four Greek air fighters were instructed to rush to the area, but then all of a sudden the Turkish air fighters retreated after the F-4s completed their virtual bombing campaign.
Hellenic Air Force officials said that dogfights such as these have not occurred since the summer of 2009, when it was discovered that the Turkish side was “cooking up something” in the Aegean.