On June 27, 1979, at approximately 11:00:00 hours, 4 Israeli F-15s from 133 Squadron are flying due East over Lebanon near Sidon. Several strike packages have bombed various PLO camps in the southern part of the country. This is the first time the F-15 is being flown in combat anywhere in the world
An IDFAF E-2C picked up that Syrian Arab Air Force Ground controllers are vectoring the several sections of MiG-21s are being vectored to them. With that, the E-2C proceeds to alert the section of Bazs and starts to jam the SyAAF radar operators.
IDF pilots Benny Zinker and Moshe Melnik were in the first pair of jets. The Second set of the four were Etian Ben-Eliyahu in #3 and Yoel Feldshow in #4 Melnik and Zinkler made contact with the bogies first.
The flight is led by Colonel Benny Zinger with Major Moshe Melnik flying as his #2 wingman. Moshe is already an ace in the F-4E Phantom.
They are alerted by Ground Control Intercept (GCI) radar that 4 Syrian Mig 21’s have crossed into Lebanese airspace from the East.
The MIGs are 20 miles away when the F-15’s radar finds the targets.
Related Article: 4 F-22s and 4 F-15s ‘Killed’ 41 Fighters jets During Mock Combat
The authorization to engage was given and both pilots at Beyond Visual Range ( BVR) released an AIM-7F Sparrows. After several seconds it was clear both Missiles missed their intended targets.
Melnik then caught sight of a section of MiGs and engaged. He fired off a Python 3 AAM missile off his wing rail. The Python tracked and scored the first kill of the F-15s career. Melnik already and Ace in the Phantom was a little too excited and failed to notice that since the kill a MiG-21 had locked on to him.
Melnik was lucky Feldshow in the #4 aircraft was covering the first section. Feldshow quickly locked on to the MiG-21 and launched one of his AIM-7Fs. This tracked and within seconds F-15s Two MiG-21s ZERO.
By the end of the 27th of June, the F-15A Bazs claimed four SyAAF MiG-21s. The four kills occurred in less than 60 seconds. And if that wasn’t impressive enough all four kills used a different weapon; one AIM-7F, one AIM-9G, one Python 3 and lastly a burst from the 20 mm Vulcan cannon.
These were only the first of many. The F-15 is credited with 104 victories with no losses.
