page_title: Operation Rimon 20
section_title: Phantom kills
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Rimon 20 / Battle / Phantom kills
caption_attribution_description: English: Israeli Air Force 69 Squadron F-4E Phantom II at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim. Carries a G139 HIAC-1 camera pod .
context_page_description: Rimon 20 was the code name of an aerial battle in 1970 which pitted the Israeli Air Force directly against Soviet fighter pilots stationed in Egypt during the War of Attrition. Israel planned the dogfight in order to send a message that it would no longer tolerate direct Soviet military involvement in its conflict with Egypt.
  In the afternoon of July 30, 1970 four Israeli Mirage IIIs crossed into Egyptian airspace, flying in tight formation so as to appear as a single aircraft. As expected, four Soviet-flown MiG-21s were scrambled to intercept what they believed to be a routine Israeli reconnaissance flight. They were soon joined by an additional eight MiGs. As the Soviet fighters closed in on the Mirages, they were ambushed by four Israeli F-4 Phantoms and eight Mirage IIIs that had been lurking undetected at low altitude. An additional 12 MiG-21 reinforcements soon arrived. By the end of the close-quarters dogfight, five Soviet MiG-21s had been downed with no Israeli losses.
context_section_description: The Phantoms crews, meanwhile, were finding out that flying in pairs was indeed safer, yet not as conducive towards scoring aerial kills since it limited individual pilot freedom of action. Their Soviet adversaries did not seem skilled enough to pose a serious threat and Bin-Nun and Sella decided to part ways and go after their own quarries. Sella set his sights on one of the MiGs yet failed to get into position to fire his missiles. When the MiG performed a tight turn and came face to face with the Phantom, Sella himself performed a tight Immelman turn which placed him above and behind the MiG:
  By this time I'd realized the Russian pilot was inexperienced; he didn't know how to handle his aircraft in a combat situation. At 15,000 ft he proved this fact by trying to escape in a steep dive to 700 ft. All we had to do was follow him and lock our radar onto him – and fire a missile. There was a tremendous explosion – but the MiG came out of the cloud of smoke apparently unharmed. That made me mad and I fired a second missile – which turned out to be unnecessary. The Russian aircraft had, in fact, been severely damaged by the first missile; suddenly, it burst into flames and fell apart. By the time the second missile reached it, it wasn't there any more.
  Sella's AIM-9 had downed Captain Georgy Syrkin, who successfully bailed out of his aircraft.
  Two minutes had passed by now and both Mirages and MiG-21s were low on fuel and starting to depart the combat zone. Avihu Bin-Nun spotted one such MiG flying at 1,000–2,000 feet with 117 Squadron's Koren and Richter on his tail. Richter had launched a Shafrir 2 missile at the MiG, yet the distance was too great and the missile fell harmlessly to the ground. Koren also attempted a missile launch, only to discover that he had jettisoned his missiles along with his fuel tanks when he entered the battle. Koren was closing into cannon range when an AIM-7 Sparrow passed him by. It struck its target, disintegrating it to bits and killing pilot Kamenev. The missile had been launched by Avihu Bin-Nun and Shaul Levi:
  Suddenly we found ourselves, me and my number 2, along with a lone 117 Squadron jet, pursuing a MiG flying at low level and almost at the speed of sound. As we saw it, the biggest threat was that the 117 pilot would claim our MiG. We launched a "Sparrow", though one shouldn't at that altitude and in those conditions. Just so that 117 wouldn't get him.
caption: Israeli Air Force 69 Squadron F-4E Phantom II.
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