Iraqi 'Mach 3' MiG Buried in Sand

[sfc_darrel]

Iraqi 'Mach 3' MiG Buried in Sand
Charles R. Smith
Wednesday August 6, 2003
NewsMax.com has obtained exclusive photos of a buried Iraqi jet fighter being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops. The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in the sand after an informant tipped off U.S. troops.
Click here to see the MiG buried in the Iraqi desert.

The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sand, like hidden treasure, waiting to be recovered at a later date.

Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found were from the Gulf War era.

The Russian-made MiG-25 Foxbat being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops in the photos is an advanced reconnaissance version never before seen in the West and is equipped with sophisticated electronic warfare devices.

U.S. Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to uncover the MiG, which is over 70 feet long and weighs nearly 25 tons.

Click here to see troops digging the MiG out of its hole.

Click here to see troops towing the jet away.

All photos courtesy of MSGT T. Collins, USAF

The Foxbat is known to be one of Iraq's top jet fighters. The advanced electronic reconnaissance version found by the U.S. Air Force is currently in service with the Russian air force. The MiG is capable of flying at speeds of over 2,000 miles an hour, or three times the speed of sound, and at altitudes of over 75,000 feet.

The recovery of the advanced MiG fighter is considered to be an intelligence coup by the U.S. Air Force. The Foxbat may also be equipped with advanced Russian- and French-made electronics that were sold to Iraq during the 1990s in violation of a U.N. ban on arms sales to Baghdad.

The buried aircraft at Al Taqqadum were covered in camouflage netting, sealed and, in many cases, had their wings removed before being buried more than 10 feet beneath the Iraqi desert.

X Marks the Spot

The discovery of the buried Iraqi jet fighters illustrates the problem faced by U.S. inspection teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is larger in size than California, and the massive deserts south and west of Baghdad were used by Saddam Hussein to hide weapons during the first Gulf war.

U.S. intelligence sources have already uncovered several mass grave burial sites in the open deserts with an estimated 10,000 dead hidden there. In addition, Iraq previously hid SCUD missiles, chemical weapons and biological warheads by burying them under the desert sand. U.N. inspection teams found the weapons in the early 1990s after detailed information of the exact locations was obtained.

Top U.S. weapons inspector Dr. David Kay is known to favor human intelligence as the primary means to find Iraq's hidden treasure trove of weapons and secrets.

While there are rumors of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons being shipped to nearby Syria, the weapons may very well still remain inside Iraq buried under the vast desert wastelands.

Some critics of the Bush administration have claimed that the inability of U.S. forces to uncover weapons of mass destruction is proof that the president misled the nation into the war with Iraq. However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly leaked from Iraq that major discoveries have already been made and are now being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment.

[SEATJERKER]

....damn, I wonder how that got there, great close ups,, but now that it's out of hiding, how far back are we going to trace it "ORIGIN"...

...How does a MIG end up buried in Iraq?...

...looks like their going to have to turn over every grain of sand in that land eventually, but I'm sure we're going to find a lot more "prizes" out there...

[Sgt_Tropo]

Why not just blanket the desert with a few hunderd / thousand of our biggest & baddest "bunker-buster" bombs and then see what we find after the "dust has settled" ? I'm betting we would find a whole lotta what dear old Uncle Saddam wants to keep hidden.
Short of blast-digging the Iraqi desert, I think it's gonna be a
lllooonnnggg time before we (the USA & Britain) are comfortable in saying we have either found all we're going to, or that there is simply nothing to be found. Even our best satalites are no good in locating turned earth in the deseert, because the sand shifts so much every day, there is no standard" for the computers to use in determining fresh-turned soil (earth).
Good work, guys, on locating the buried MIGs. It doesn't matter HOW hyou got the info, just that you got it and the info was good.

[Boats]

Sfc-Darrel,

I betcha there is a lot more buried in that desert as well as other's across the world then people really know. I would have thought there was technology that would let them see 100 feet into the sand from air? But maybe it's just wishfull thinking.

The sands of time and the winds that blow can cover up many things. Whose to say what's out there? Only time will tell.