The Turkish Air Force is no longer supporting the air war on ISIS.

According to  Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper, the Turkish Air Force has suspended the missions over Syria of its aircraft supporting the international air campaign against ISIS.

This is the effect of the unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Ankara and Moscow sparked by the downing of the Russian Su-24 Fencer bomber by a TuAF F-16 after the alleged and controversial violation of the Turkish airspace on Nov. 24.

According to the Turkish authorities, the Su-24 violated Ankara’s airspace (for 17 seconds) and did not respond to 10 warnings in 5 minutes, radioed by a TuAF GCI (Ground Controlled Intercept) station while the aircraft, along with another one of the same type approached the border. Russian authorities deny this report and claim no warning was issued by the Turkish and no violation occurred at all.

Following the incident, the TuAF said that the warnings, on a dedicated mutually agreed radio channel and the international Guard (emergency) channel (243.0/121.5 MHz), were not answered by the Russian plane that continued to fly towards the Turkish airspace, leading the Turkish Air Force to believe the intruding aircraft was not Russian but Syrian.

One of the Su-24 pilots was killed by fire from the ground after successfully ejecting from the plane in flames whereas the second pilot was rescued in a 12-hour-long operation

Actually, according to the Turkish media outlet, the decision was mutual and aimed at preventing the repetition of the incident along the border: on one side, TuAF jets will no longer take part in the air war on Islamic State, on the other one, the Russians will halt their raids near the Syria-Turkey border.

In the meanwhile, Moscow has deployed the S-400 air defense system at Latakia air base as the following video shows.

 

Related articles

• Impressive video shows Turkish air strike on PKK ammunition depot in Northern Iraq as seen from a Gozcu UAV
• Syrian Mi-17 kill mark appears on Turkish F-16C during NATO Tiger Meet
• Turkish airbase has just raised its alert status for a possible attack from Syria
• And here’s the official statement of the Syrian Armed Forces about the downing of a helicopter on the Turkish border
• Online flight tracking provides interesting details about Russian air bridge to Syria
• Turkish Air Force F-16s fighter planes force Syrian civilian plane to land at Ankara airport for investigation
• Turkish Air Force F-16 has just shot down a Syrian helicopter that violated the Turkish airspace

Turkish Air Force has been training for real operations like those in Iraq and Syria for 15 years.

On Jul. 24, Turkey launched “Operation Martyr Yalcin” against ISIS positions in Syria and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in Northern Iraq.

The air strikes actually began in the early morning on Jul. 24, a day after Islamic State militants attacked a Turkish border patrol in the town of Elbeyli in Kilis Province, killing one soldier and injuring two others. The operation was named after the Turkish soldier killed in the initial attack, Yalçın Nane.

At around 3:40 LT three F-16s from 181 Filo took off from Diyarbakir airbase and bombed 3 ISIS positions  in northern Syria dropping GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided bombs. The Turkish jets did not violate the Syrian airspace but dropped their bombs from inside the Turkish airspace.

Post strike analysis assessed 35 ISIS militants were killed by the first wave of raids that was followed later on the same day (starting around 22:30 LT) by a larger air strike against PKK positions in northern Iraq. The mission is said to have involved 20 F-16s from 181 Filo that according to witnesses and initial reports violated the Syrian and Iraqi air space.

The air strikes in Iraq allegedly killed the PKK commander Murat Karayılan among the others.

On Jul. 25, a third wave of air strikes was launched against PKK: it was divided into three sub-waves, the first and second of those involved 70 F-16s that conducted their mission, returned to Dyarbakir were re-armed and re-launched, and by a third wave reportedly conducted by 25 F-4E-2020 Phantoms from Eskisehir, temporarily deployed to Erhac.

In the subsequent days, F-16s (from 181 Filo with support from 161 Filo) from Dyarbakir, mainly focused on PKK positions in both in northern Iraq and inside Turkey, as well as on ISIS targets in northern Syria.

The Turkish Air Force has been preparing to conduct a similar air campaign for about 15 years through Anatolian Eagle (AE) series of exercises.

Held three times a year at Konya airbase, in the Central Anatolia region, AE is a medium-scale air exercise inspired by the U.S. Red Flag and Maple Flag series, the aim of which is to train fighter pilots for the first few days of a modern conflict.

The first such drills took place in 2001, then, throughout the years, AE has become more complex and effective in preparing Turkish (and allied) aircrews to war.

All the images in this post were taken by The Aviationist’s contributor Tony Lovelock, during the most recent class of AE, held at Konya in June.

H/T to Arda Mevlutoglu and ACIG forum for providing useful information for this article.

 

Related articles

• Turkish airbase has just raised its alert status for a possible attack from Syria
• Syrian Mi-17 kill mark appears on Turkish F-16C during NATO Tiger Meet
• Smoking Tires! F-16D Fighting Falcon (hard) touchdown at Konya
• Incredible F-16 jet pilot’s selfie
• Close call: two Turkish Air Force NF-5 jets almost collide during aerobatic display
• Syrian Air Force becoming increasingly aggressive near Turkish border
• Turkish F-16 shows off Syrian Mig-23 kill mark

Diyarbakir airbase, one of the most important airbases in Turkey, located in the southeastern part of the country, is on alert status today for a possible Syrian attack.

Tolga Ozbek, aviation editor of Hurriyet Newspaper, informed us that on Aug. 30, the alert status was increased to “orange”, a level used when threat of attack is “high”.

It is not clear whether the Turkish authorities were informed of an imminent U.S. strike on Syria or the heightened alert status is caused by intelligence data suggesting Damascus is preparing to attack Ankara.

“Today is a holiday in Turkey but F-16s still on exercise,” Ozbek told us. “Also two squadrons from Merzifon Air Force Base (151-152nd both operating with Block 50 F-16s) and 171 Squadron from Malatya (operating F-4E 2020 Terminators) came to Diyarbakır.”

Some images taken recently at the base can be found here.

Diyarbakir is a large airbase hosting  181 and 182th Filo (Squadrons) and their F-16s since 1994. Base’s aircraft have been used in combat to attack PKK positions, to force a suspect Syrian airliner crossing the Turkish airspace to land, and were scrambled to intercept Syrian aircraft near the border.

Diyarbakir is also main comand center of Turkish Air Force’s 2nd Air Force Commands which controls the easth side of Turkey.

Image credit: via Kokpit.aero

 

Related articles

• Should the US get involved in Syria it will be a cruise missiles and stealth bombers-only air war
• Russia’s Emergencies Ministry’s evacuation plane just made a quick stop in Syria
• Two U-2s touch down in Cyprus: U.S. moving spyplanes closer to Syria
• A Cyber attack by Syrian Electronic Army may be Assad’s most dangerous reaction to U.S. air strikes
• Photo shows U.S. E-4B doomsday plane on the ground at Incirlik Turkey
• U.S. WC-135C nuclear radiation sniffing plane spotted over Europe. En-route to Syria?
• Six RAF Typhoon fighter jets leave UK for Cyprus. Four of them deploying right now.

News agencies have reported that Turkey has scrambled two fighter jets (most probably F-16s based at Diyarbakir) to the border region with Syria, near the town of Hacipasa, after loud speakers were heard asking for rebel fighters to surrender as an air raid was imminent.

The Syrian helicopter then appeared and started to bomb the Syrian town of Azmarin. The helicopter would have been very very close to the Turkish airspace, therefore the Turks decided to launch the fighters as a response.

Details are very sparse but the Hurriyet News website doesn’t mention if the jets engaged the helicopter; therefore it must be assumed they did not engage it because too far or, since it didn’t violate the Turkish airspace.

Further details will be forthcoming once details have come out of the area.

Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com

Related Articles

• Syrian airliner forced to land in Turkey had radios, antennae, missile parts and ammunition on board (theaviationist.com)
• Turkey shells Syria in response to Syrian rocket attack (theaviationist.com)

Syrian Air Flight 442 (RB442), an Airbus A320 registered YK-AKE suspected of carrying weapons from Moscow to Damascus was forced to land at Ankara Esenboğa Airport on Oct. 10, 2012.

The civil liner, with 35 passengers on board, was intercepted by the Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jets as it entered the eastern part of the Turkish airspace and it is currently being inspected.

25 Turkish F-16s were moved to Diyarbakir airbase on Monday following the border crisis with Syria.

Noteworthy, the flight from Moscow can be tracked until it reached Ukraina using ADS-B.

Turkish planes have been banned from flying in the Syrian airspace: flights carrying pilgrims to Jeddah landed in Adana, due to the closure of Syria’s airspace.

Image credit: TuAF

Related Articles

• Turkey sends 25 F-16 fighter jets close to the Syrian border (theaviationist.com)
• Pilots of the Turkish RF-4E downed by Syria executed by Assad on Russia’s advice. But new theory raises questions. (theaviationist.com)
• 30 years later, Ankara admits Turkish Air Force jet was shot down by Iraq (theaviationist.com)