KAMAN (BOW) 99:

The Iraq air invasion started on 22 september 1980,but the IRIAF designed and operated a huge air strikes to gain air superiority on iraq air force just one day later by more than 140 military aircrafts.This proudly operation was "kaman 99" which means "Bow 99".This name refers to legendary iranian hero ,namely,"Arash Kamangir" who was a strong man in using bow and arrow Also it refered to rage fire of Iran nation which was fired to far-reaching points of enemy land and 99 was the number of operation plan pages..As soon as sun rose in iraq, fighters striked to this country sky.The main reason for choosing this time was this fact that since sun rises from east to west and Iran is located in the east of iraq,so iraq air defence was annoyed by sun lights, making aiming so difficult.The operation region was all over Iraq land and sky such us kirkook,moosel,rashid,habania,naseria,shoibieh,koot,almosana and many other air bases from 30 in south to 37 in north of Iraq.The main goal of the operation was ruining Iraq air force as much as possible.To achieve this aim,the majority of airbases,fuel tankers,munitions bunkers,aircraft shelters,air industrial centers,runways,control towers and everything which was effective in paralysing Iraq air force were bombarded.Also,before the main invasion,some anti air enemy defence carried out and radar sites,air to air missiles sites and other air defence instruments were aimed by fighters.It is estimated that about 56 percent of iraq air force ability were descended for a long time.For example,AL-Rashid airbase,near Baghdad,was operated again two mounths later.After Iraf being paralysed,Iran air force was able to operate air to ground strikes against iraq ground forces in Khozestan and other part of our dear land,making them paralysed on ground,too.The most important fighters using in this air strike were F-5(Tiger),F-4(Phantom),F-14(Tomcat) and fuel tankers.Also,the most important airbases were Tehran,Tabriz,Hamedan,Dezful,Bushehr and Shiraz.About 380 pilots took part in this operation who 140 of them entered in Iraq sky.On this day,Iriaf lost some of best pilots including "Homayoon Shoghi","Ghafar Raminfar","ghlomhosein orooji","Massih Dinmohammadi","Bahram Eshghipoor","Abass Eslaminia" and ....During next days world medias started to admire Iranian pilots and their fighters.They mentioned Iran pilots ability and their manoueuvers against Baghdad powerfull air defence as UNIQUE and WONDERFUL jobs and the heads of Iraq who were feared of other such operations suggested ceasefire.

Source:Internet BY:Alireza Sadeghi

 کمان ۹۹: