Foreshadowing a no-fly zone? "ISIS training pilots to fly fighter jets"

[CJCRANE]

Islamic State training pilots to fly MiG fighter planes, says monitoring group
Militants reportedly have three captured jets and witnesses cited as saying they have seen planes flying low over Aleppo

Islamic State (Isis) is takings its first steps towards building an air force by training pilots to fly captured fighter planes, according to a group monitoring the conflict in Syria.

Isis is using lots of tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and Jeeps taken from the Syrian and Iraqi armies but this is the first report that it has planes in the air.

Isis, which took the US by surprise this year with its rapid territorial expansion in Syria and Iraq, has three Russian-built MiG jets, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which appears to have a good network of observers on the ground and has often proved reliable in the past.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the British-based group, said Isis has trainers who had gained experience in the Iraqi air force under former president Saddam Hussein.

LINK Guardian UK

[arcane1]

1. I thought we were bombing the hell out of them

[CJCRANE]

2. Me too. I assume it would be difficult to hide fighter jets in the desert.

They should be sitting ducks.

But then again, this is the luckiest rebel group I've ever heard of. Military gear just falls into their lap.

[arcane1]

3. They certainly aren't hiding them in schools or homes!

Lucky indeed!

[CJCRANE]

6. Exactly. They can't hide a plane or a tank in a house

especially when they're on the offense. It should be relatively easy to pick them off when they're on the move.

[hughee99]

4. Why would poorly trained pilots in comparatively antiquated fighters

help them against a western-enforced no fly zone?

[CJCRANE]

5. Turkey wants a no-fly zone in Northern Syria. It was pointed out that the rebels don't have

an air force so there is no need for one.

Now this source purports that the rebels are trying to create their own air force.

[hughee99]

7. Ah, okay. I think I missed the point.

It's a convenient source to support something that Turkey wants but there's no real reason for.

[haele]

8. Okay, so they have trainers who flew 25 - 45 year old fighter aircraft at best.

Does the aircraft they have match the experience of the trainers - who probably haven't been flying for combat since 2004? Are these three planes old Iraqi MIGs that have been out of service for a while, or more recently built Syrian MIGs captured from Assad's forces?
Saddam's MIGs - the ones left in Iraq and flown by these Republican Guard trainers were probably Cold War cast-offs, halfway decent, but still 1970's technology. It's not quite the same as flying more recent versions that are being used regularly throughout this decade, and while the trainers might be decent fighter pilots, there's a lot more

Do they have logistical support for their aircraft? Flying in the Middle East sandbox is hard, hard, hard on the aircraft; small planes, especially ones with highly complicated electronic systems need constant maintenance.
As someone up thread indicates, where (and how) are they going to safeguard their hangers and flight-lines?

Are we looking at dog-fighters or bombers? How "good" can one expect a dozen or so inexperienced pilots who did more hours training on and X-box Microsoft Fight Simulator than in a cockpit who are sharing three planes amongst them?

I'm not sure that this is more of a threat than suicide bombers. Three planes, easy to pick off with ak-ak or drones. Now if they had three dozen, that would be a concern.

Haele