Two U.S. Jets Were Out On A Routine Mission When Suddenly A Missile Came Out Of Nowhere

The F-14s have nothing else in mind but to warn off the Fitters. That’s the mission for today: let the Libyans know that they’re approaching a zone where they’ll face fire if they don’t back off. But in a flash, an air-to-air missile is shooting toward the lead American plane, and the Top Guns of the U.S. Navy are in a real fight-or-flight situation.

Both the Tomcats and Fitters are what’s known as swing-wing fighters. And these types of airplane have never been engaged in combat with each other – prior to today. Plus the Tomcat has never even found itself in a dogfight before. But the squadron leader’s first problem is that there’s an Atoll missile barreling toward him, and this fight might be over before it’s even begun…

The Tomcats were in the Gulf of Sidra on a freedom of navigation exercise. This is a military operation in which U.S. ships and planes demonstrate their rights to move around under international law. They do this by protesting claims to international waters – made by other countries – that are considered excessive. How much “excessive” is depends on the waters in question.

The United States was showing the Libyans that, in this case, it would defend the right to sail in the Mediterranean. So it sent a task force that included the supercarriers U.S.S. Nimitz and U.S.S. Forrestal into the area. Each of the carriers was home to dozens of airplanes and helicopters, among them the F-14s.

The F-14 was born out of a need for a plane to be the main defense of a group of warships, or “carriers.” If an enemy sent bombers to attack the warships, the Tomcat would scramble and use its speed and power to take them on from far away, never allowing them to get close.

And it was fast! F-14 test pilot and designer Charlie Brown told Popular Mechanics website in March 2021, “The [Navy] specs called for Mach 2.34 [over twice the speed of sound]. We actually tested the airplane for Mach 2.5 [even faster]. When you fly a Phantom, it’s built for 2.0, but when you fly that fast, it’s like sitting on a beach ball; you don’t know which way it’ll go, it’s so sensitive. In a F-14, it’s like sitting in a Cadillac.”

With a huge range and a powerful tech package, this slick beast of the air was not one to tangle with lightly. Pilot Paco Cherici told Popular Mechanics, “The Tomcat was a massive airplane wrapped behind an enormous radar specially built to fire the most lethal air-to-air missile in the western inventory, the AIM-54 Phoenix.”

A plane this formidable was perhaps bound to catch the public’s attention. And when F-14 pilots were the focus of 1986 hit movie Top Gun, it became a star. After the film aired, the Navy was swamped by youngsters wanting to serve as an airman and fly their own Tomcat.

Yet with this kind of power available to you, you needed a cool head. You also needed rules of engagement, and in August 1981, the fighter pilots were clear what theirs were. They weren’t at war, so they weren’t out to start anything, but they didn’t need permission to shoot back if they came under fire.

So if things did start, the naval aviators knew that they’d be facing strong, well-armed adversaries. The Libyans had their own airplanes, such as Soviet-made craft ranging from the Mach 3-capable MiG-25 Foxbat to the heavy Su-22 Fitter and the French fighters, the Mirage 5D and F.1.

The aircraft that the Tomcats encountered were Sukhoi Su-22s. These planes were meant to move quickly near the ground. So they weren’t really the best to take on Tomcats with. And these bombers didn’t have radar, which they’d need to take on a modern dogfight. Instead, they had a ground targeting laser at the front.

Yet these Soviet-designed planes were popular all around the world, particularly because the sweep wings meant they only needed a small runway for takeoff. With a powerful engine and a full suite of electronics, they weren’t beginner aircraft, even though the onboard systems did help the pilot with bombing and navigation.

And the Su-22 could carry a full range of different-sized bombs and missiles, making it a threat to the warships. Although it was focused on bombing, it could also work in air reconnaissance. So it made a fine choice for scoping out the location of the U.S. task force.

Still, when the Libyans first tried the defenses of the U.S.’s aircraft carriers in 1981, they used a different plane. They sent in MiG-25s as soon as the exercise started. It wasn’t long before these were chased off by planes from both warships, including not only F-4J Phantoms but also F-14s. And this would only be the start.

But what were the Libyans doing? Well, they wanted to know where the aircraft carriers were. And the Navy’s aircraft acted as a screen, warning them away from that location via the airspace. Throughout the day of August 18, 1981, the Libyans sent in pair after pair of airplanes, 35 sets in all. And all day long they and the Americans jinked and jostled in the skies above the gulf.

The U.S. ships sent up their air screen again the following day. Among them were two Tomcats from the VF-41 squadron, nicknamed “Black Aces.” These planes rocketed from the deck of the Nimitz. And given the pace and power of the F-14s, they had the callsigns “Fast Eagle 102” and “Fast Eagle 107.”

Their patrol was uneventful to begin with. But that would soon change. The men aboard the planes would see their training tested to the utmost. Those fliers were Henry “Hank” Kleemann – backed by radar guy Dave Venlet – the mission commander in Fast Eagle 102, and Larry “Music” Muczynski flying Fast Eagle 107 – alongside James Anderson on radar.

Kleemann, a native of the wide lands of southern Illinois, was initially a little on the heavy side. But training at the naval academy soon knocked off any edges. Brawny and strong, he had smarts to match the muscles. And he made a name for himself in effortlessly getting straight As before becoming a pilot.

Muczynski was not a natural-born pilot. He started only when he got into the Navy. But it’s fair to say he took to it. In 1981 he was making the transition from Phantoms. He was happy to do it, telling The Museum of Flight website in 2018, “It was a big deal to get a Tomcat.” With the change of plane came a change of ship, and he was loving it, although the food on the Nimitz left something to be desired.

Speaking to Bert Kinzey for his book F-14 A and B Tomcat in Detail and Scale, Muczynski described what had happened in the Gulf. To begin with, the Tomcat pilots weren’t happy. Their station had not seen much action the day before. And they weren’t too keen on being stuck there for too long either. So they hatched a plan.

Muczynski explained, “In fact we were trying to think of ways to get off of that station and go someplace else. What we had determined was that once we got down to what we call our combat fuel load, we would call for relief on station, go back and hit the tanker, and then go to another station.”

So three-quarters of an hour into their patrol, the two Tomcats were close to ready to put their scheme into action. But then they spotted a bogey. Venlet saw a blip on his radar. They had been scanning a Libyan airfield, and something had taken to the air from it. Before long, Anderson also had the target on his screen.

The Libyans didn’t hang about. They came straight for the Tomcats. They powered up to 20,000 feet, which was the height that the F-14s were flying at. Soon they had sped up to 540 knots, and as Kleemann and Muczynski maneuvered, the Libyan pilots matched their movements. It was clear to Muczynski that his adversaries were being directed by ground control. Scary stuff!

There was no way for the American planes to go faster than the Libyans at their cruising speed. So they engaged their afterburner to the maximum. The Tomcats were soon flying at 500 knots. The two sets of aircraft were coming ever closer together, when something that the Americans had not expected happened.

Muczynski described it, saying, “When Commander Kleemann was 1,000 feet in front of them and about 500 feet above them, he rolled his left wing to pass directly above the section, so he could get visual ID on them. At that time, the left side of the lead Libyan aircraft lit up with a big flame as the missile motor ignited.”

As Muczynski was by the side of the plane that had fired the missile, he had a better view of what was going on. And it seemed that he might get a closer view, as the projectile swerved toward his plane instead. The flier didn’t blink, though. As he told Kinzey, “It was also immediately obvious that neither one of us was going to get hit by the missile, so it didn’t bother either of us.”

But now that they had fired, the Libyans had made themselves targets. The rules of engagement meant that the F-14s were immediately cleared to engage. Muczynski said, “Commander Kleemann initially had also gone after the leader, but when he saw me closing on him, he reversed his turn back toward the wingman.”

Kleemann rapidly got into position behind the Su-22. There was a problem, though. This early in the day, the sun was still low. So, Muczynski explained, “The wingman […] happened to fly across the sun as he was making his hard starboard turn. So Commander Kleemann just waited on his shot for the guy to clear the sun.”

Then Kleemann shot an AIM-9L Sidewinder at the Fitter. Muczynski said, “The missile pulled lead, then did a 90-degree reversal and hit the aircraft in the tail… The aircraft started to roll, the drag chute deployed and the guy immediately ejected. He got a good chute and started down.” But how would Muczynski fare?

Equally well, as it happens. Muczynski had quickly gotten behind the lead libyan aircraft as he climbed, and now he had the Su-22 in his sights. His Sidewinder missile streaked out. The pilot remembered, “The Sidewinder went right up the guy’s tailpipe and blew off everything from the wing roots rearward in a tremendous fireball.”

Now the only danger to Muczynski was that debris from the exploded Libyan plane would knock him out of the sky. So he had to go vertically up and roll out upside down once he’d cleared the plane’s leftovers.The pilot of the stricken Fitter ejected as his plane plummeted towards the Earth.

So this was the first test in real-life for the F-14 Tomcat. And it has to be said that it passed with flying colors. But if you’re picturing the stately twirls and pirouettes of the dogfights of the past, think again. This all happened in the blink of the eye: with fewer than 45 seconds passing from the first missile fire to the end of the second Libyan plane.

But was the performance down to the pilots’ ability? Muczynski didn’t think so. He told author Bert Kinzey, “One thing I would like to say is that I feel that anybody in my squadron could do the same thing that I did. It was simply me being in the right place at the right time with the right results.”

No more planes went down in 1981, but the F-14s were back in action in 1989, when the United States clashed with Libya once more. This time, the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy headed a group of aircraft carriers that steamed to the Libyan coast for another freedom of navigation exercise. This time squadrons VF-14 Tophatters and VF-32 Swordsmen supplied the Tomcats.

The two planes from VF-32, callsigns “Gipsy 207” and “Gipsy 202,” soared above the southern area of the Gulf of Sidra. This time the pilots were squadron leader Joseph B. Connelly, assisted by Leo F. Enwright, and Hermon C. Cook III, with Steven P. Collins operating his radar. We don’t know whether they were expecting trouble, but it soon found them.

A surveillance plane let them know that two Libyan planes had taken to the air, leaving from the airfield at Al Bumbah. And no sooner had they received the warning than the aircraft showed on their radars. They were 72 miles away and closing. The Tomcats gained a radar lock: the standard way to warn the Libyans off.

Often this would be enough to end the confrontation, but not this day. The Tomcats screamed down to their adversaries’ level, following them to 8,000 feet. They got themselves between the bad guys and the fleet. Now the two sets of planes began maneuvering, the Libyans turning towards the Tomcats and then away, coming ever closer.

The planes flashed across the sky, and the Americans decided the danger was too high. Only a few minutes after they’d taken off, the Libyan planes, MiG-23s this time, were going down in flames. Connelly reported to his surveillance plane that they’d, “splashed two Floggers and that there were two good ’chutes in the air.”

But even an awesome plane such as the F-14 flies off into the past eventually. By the time of the Gulf War, its systems could no longer tell which distant aircraft were hostiles and which friends. Not that the Iraqis were willing to take them on. Times had changed, and these days, other craft are the glamour planes of the Navy.