Libyan opposition announces new government amid new clashes (& Libyan air force plane downed)

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libyan opposition leaders announced an alternative government Saturday as the United States and other countries helped evacuate refugees of the conflict.

Anti-government forces also claimed two major successes Saturday:preventing pro-government forces from taking the city of Zawiya, near the capital of Tripoli, and capturing the strategic eastern oil town of Ras Lanuf.

=snip=

Rebels near Ras Lanuf said they shot down a Libyan air force plane, a Soviet-made Sukhoi Su-24MK that crashed in the desert. CNN located the plane's debris, spread over a kilometer (about half a mile), with the headless bodies of two pilots at the site.

The plane was printed with the emblem of the Libyan Arab Air Force.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/03/05/libya.conflict/?hpt=T2

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A lot more detail and several videos at the link.

[Turborama]

1. Update on the plane

7:22am Nasser Wedday, an activist and blogger, says that plane that was shot down by opposition forces is a Su-24 plane.

The numbers on it also reveal that the plane is from Squadron 1124 which is based at the Ghurdabiya-Sirte Air Base in Sirte, just half-way to Benghazi.

Weddady says that this can be confirmed by a military expert or by consulting Jane's World Defence which gives the order of battle of the Libyan airforce - specifies which base has which squadron, and type of plane is at each base.

He says it is very strange that MiG 23's have not been used yet, as these are meant to be the backbone of the Libyan airforce. Weddady says that this could be because of pilot defections or the abscense of ground crews.

From: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-6-0

Pictures of the plane's debris...

[happyslug]

2. As tto the Mig-23, it has been reported used in other attacks

Now you have to be careful with MIG-23 and MIG-27s. MIG-23s, in Soviet Service, were intended to be fighter-bombers, while the MIG-27s were true fighters (The main difference was the much larger Radars for the MIG-27s, otherwise the planes were the same, and NATO treated both as the same with their NATO designation).

Now, while the Soviet MIG-23s were fighter-bombers, that did not mean the Libyan MIG-23s are fighter bombers The Soviet Union would sell what people wanted thus you could have MIG-27 capacity in something the Soviet called a MIG-23, on the other hand the MIG-23 sold to Libya could be aimed for ground support, it is hard to say given what we know of the Libyan Air Force)

More on the MIG-23:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-23

The SU-24 is an even older plane then the MIG-23, but as a all weather bomber sill used by the Russian Air Force (The MIG-23 have been eliminated from the Russian Air Force do to the cut back in that force since the 1980s, i.e nothing replaced the plane, the squadrons that flew them were eliminated). The SU-24 is a much more expensive plane to operate then the MIG-23 and other reports have stated MIG-23 ground attacks.

Both were aimed for operations against foreign forces in mass (Mostly anti-shipping i.e. aimed at the US Navy more then anything else). Slower Jets like the SU-25 and Helicopters will be more effective in the type of fighting that is occurring today i.e. small units fighting short intense fire fights NOT large units massed for a ground attack

More on the SU-24:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-24

Most MIG-23 along with older MIG-21s seems to have been grounded since the 1980s (do to lack of parts). Russia never supplied Libya with MIG-25s, thus the most effective weapon so far has been Helicopters (Both US and Soviet/Russian Helicopters)


More on the Libyan Air Force:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya_air_force