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.
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.
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. 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.
