At 7 o'clock on August 19, 1981, two Su-22 fighters belonging to the Libyan Air Force flew straight to the exercise area of the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet in the Gulf of Sidra, and then the U.S. E-2C early warning aircraft spotted the two ill-intentioned Libyan fighters and called two F-14 fighters on combat readiness patrols to intercept them.
However, what the US F-14 fighter did not expect was that when it was 6 kilometers away from the L-YRI fighter, a L-22 suddenly launched a missile straight to the F-14, but because the L-14 pilot was relatively low-trained, the missile was hurriedly launched without occupying a favorable attack position, and the missile also detonated after deviating from the target.
Then the US F-14 fighter took this opportunity to bite another Su-22 fighter, firing missiles at a distance of 1.2 kilometers to shoot it down, and then the two F-14s used their super high maneuverability to turn around and bite the other Su-22 fighter and shoot it down, which is the Battle of Sidra Bay, the US military used the excellent performance of the fighter, the guidance of the early warning aircraft and reasonable tactics to shoot down two Soviet-22 fighters of the Li Army in 1 minute.
And the cause of this air battle is also very interesting. On September 1, 1969, Gaddafi overthrew the Idris dynasty, kicked out the U.S. troops stationed in the country, and then quickly fell to the Soviet Union, subsequently announcing that the Gulf of Sidra would be designated as Libya's territorial waters, and that no warplane or warship of any country would enter the sea, except for Soviet warships and warplanes.
At this time, the Americans were angry and half dead, refusing to recognize the Gulf of Sidra as Libya's territorial waters, only recognizing 12 nautical miles of Libya's coastline as its territorial waters, and often sending fleets into the Gulf of Sidra for exercises, and over time this crushing naval battle broke out.
