BRTTTTTTTTT…..

The first 20 seconds of the following footage show an A-10 Thunderbolt, attacking ISIS positions near Mosul, Iraq, on Jan. 22.

Interestingly, the footage shows, once again, a U.S. Air Force A-10 flying at medium/low altitude over the battlefield, where the Warthog face the threat of MANPADS known to be in possession of Islamic State forces: according to a recent report, American A-10s were shot at with four Strela missiles during previous close air support missions in the same area.

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U.S. A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft face the threat of Man Portable Air Defense Systems in Iraq.

According to a report by Iraqi News, American A-10 were shot at with four Strela missiles during the recent air strikes carried out by the Warthogs (as the Thunderbolts are referred to by the pilot community) on ISIS positions near Mosul, in Iraq.

Based on reports by unnamed sources who witnessed the attack, the A-10s killed and wounded several terrorists but were also targeted by the ISIS militants who allegedly attempted to shoot down the U.S. planes fling at low altitude using 9K32 Strela-2 (NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail) man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude, IR (infra-red) guided, surface-to-air missile systems.

Even though the Warthogs were not hit by the surface-to-air missiles, the episode seems to confirm that, flying at medium and low altitude and loitering over the battlefield, the A-10s deployed to Kuwait face the threat of MANPADS known to be in possession of Islamic State forces.

Still, the “Hog” is a tough plane, that has already shown its special ability to bring the pilot back to the homebase in spite of heavy damages by ground fire.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

 

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Two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes were shot down in eastern Ukraine lately. Here’s the video of pro-Russia separatists inspecting the wreckage.

On Jul. 23, two Ukrainian Air Force Su-25s flying a CAS (Close Air Support) mission near Today, July 23, near Dmytrivka terrorists were shot down by the pro-Russia separatists.

According to the Ukrainian MoD, the two attack planes were part of a flight of four Frogfoot jets egressing the area of operation, when they were hit by anti-aircraft missiles.

At the beginning of the footage you can see the flares deployed by one of the two aircraft, a sign that it was most probably targeted and downed by a MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defense System) rather than a SARH (Semi-Active Radar Homing) surface to air missile (as the Su-11 Gadfly “Buk”, believed to have downed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying as MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on Jul. 17).

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Evidence of shrapnel damage to the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 has emerged from images taken at the crash site.

Photos taken at the MH17 crash site clearly show shrapnel signs on various parts of the wreckage of the Boeing 777 shot down over eastern Ukraine while en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 people on board.

Among all the images published on media outlets from all around the world, the one first published by Financial Times over the past weekend, struck our attention.

The piece of wreckage, reportedly measuring 1 mt sq, has a couple of distinctive features that may help the identification: the colored stripes of the Malaysia Airlines livery and the bolts of the cockpit side windshield.

Based on these details, with the help of our contributor Giuliano Ranieri, we identified (and obviously we were not the only ones) the piece as a chunk of front fuselage located next to the cockpit (slightly below it), on the left hand side of the plane.

The piece has several burn marks, a large central hole and several smaller punture marks surrouding it. The edges of the small holes seem to be bent outwards, evidence of something that got out of the skin from the inside of the plane.

This is a sign the missile, most probably fired by an SA-11 system according to almost all reports to date, equipped with a proximity fuse, detonated on the right side of the aircraft not too far from the nose, scattering several fragments of shrapnel so fast that they traversed the plane from side to side: they entered through the right side of the airframe and got out from the left one.

Furthermore, considering the amount of puncture marks concentrated at the base of the cockpit window’s we can assume both pilots were hit by high speed, hot shrapnels that most probably did not give them time to realize what was going on.

Image credit: FT.com/graphic by Giuliano Ranieri

Update:

New, higher resolution images of the same part of wreckage have emerged. These images seem to point in a different direction.

Indeed, the holes have edges that appear to be inward. This could be coherent with a missile which did not blast on the aircraft’s right hand side, but on the left one, between the nose and the leading edge of the left wing. Still, the type of puncture marks and the concentration are suitable with a SARH.

Image credit: Jeroen Akkermans Flikr account

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Based on the graphic shown by the Russian Ministry of Defense, it was a U.S. EF-111 Raven to fly close to the MH17 just before it was shot down.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a Ukrainian Air Force Su-25 was detected by one of Russia’s radars in the area climbing towards the MH17 on the day the civilian plane with 298 people on board was shot down.

“The SU-25 fighter jet can gain an altitude of 10km, according to its specification. […] It’s equipped with air-to-air R-60 missiles that can hit a target at a distance up to 12km, up to 5km for sure.”

Interestingly, the Russian MoD said the Su-25 (mistakenly defined as a “fighter jet” whereas it is an attack plane) operated well above its ceiling of 23,000 feet. Even more interesting the Wiki page of the Su-25 was edited (by a Russian IP address) to update its specifications…

Anyway, even though we reported the speculations about the alleged Ukrainian military activity in the surroundings of the MH17 flight, we can’t but notice that the graphic used by the Russian MoD has another major flaw: it depicts (on the left) the Boeing 777 as a Boeing 707, and the Su-25 (on the right) with the shape of an EF-111 Raven, a famous, retired, U.S. electronic warfare plane!

Top image credit: Russian MoD via RT.com; bottom: Wiki

 

 

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