Word: 15s
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...strengths and weaknesses of Soviet weapons. The reports are not always upbeat. During the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, the Syrian army lost more than 390 tanks, including 34 of the modern T-72s. The Syrian performance in the air was no better. Flying U.S.-built F-15s and F-16s, Israeli pilots downed 96 Soviet-built jets; one-fifth were newer-model MiG-25s and MiG-23s. Israeli pilots also wiped out 23 batteries of Soviet-built surface-to-air missiles. The official Soviet press dismissed the reports as CIA disinformation, but the Kremlin took them seriously...
...Bering Sea in the early-morning darkness, came under the watchful eye of Soviet radar. For the next 2½ hr. the blip moved into and out of Soviet airspace. When it crossed over the eastern border of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Soviets scrambled four MiG-23s and Su-15s from the Petropavlovsk airbase on Kamchatka to search for the intruder. Just after 3 a.m., over the Soviet island of Sakhalin, where another six interceptors had given pursuit, the hunters found their quarry...
...Captain Chun and the other 268 innocent travelers on his airliner soon were in trouble. Somehow, Flight 007 had passed those lines, invisible in the sky but so clearly etched on maps, that mark forbidden airspace. The Soviets scrambled MiG-23s, their widely deployed supersonic jet fighter, and Sukhoi-15s, a slightly older but nonetheless lethal interceptor, to follow the 747. Japanese and American intelligence sources later figured that at least eight of the single-seat fighters pursued the relatively slow-moving airliner...
Perhaps only the Soviets could display such gall, but other countries have also been guilty of firing on commercial flights. In 1955, two Bulgarian MiG-15s fitted with cannons attacked an off-course El Al Constellation airliner that was apparently flying into Bulgarian airspace. The plane, en route from London to Israel, crashed in Bulgaria, killing all 58 passengers and crew aboard. After an outraged protest from Israel, which accused Bulgaria of "shocking recklessness," the government issued a formal apology. It said the fighter pilots had been "too hasty," and agreed to pay compensation to the victims' families...
...bomber is intended to fill the role proposed for America's B-1B. Two new fighter jets being developed by the Soviets, the MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker, are to contain high-tech radar and weapons-guidance avionics like those in U.S. F-14s and F-15s...