by David Cenciotti
Since the news that a Turkish Air Force RF-4E had been shot down by Syria on Jun. 22, I’ve received several comments and emails from known and reliable sources as well as anonymous people.
Among the hundreds hints, a few suggested that the Phantom downed in mysterious circumstances by a Syrian anti-aircraft artillery off Latakia, was actually a remotely controlled aircraft (a drone), being used to either spying on Assad’s regime activities in northern Syria, or probing Damascus air defenses, as suggested by a NATO pilot and reportedly routinely done in the Aegean with the Greek ones.
Although the chances that Ankara has modified one its Phantoms to be remotely piloted and used for covert missions inside the Syrian airspace seem to be scarce, I can’t completely rule out the possibility that a sort-of QF-4 (the U.S. aerial target drone F-4) is (or was) flying with the Turkish Air Force....read more
http://theaviationist.com/2012/07/02/tuaf-f4-drone/comment-page-1/#comment-47344
Since the news that a Turkish Air Force RF-4E had been shot down by Syria on Jun. 22, I’ve received several comments and emails from known and reliable sources as well as anonymous people.
Among the hundreds hints, a few suggested that the Phantom downed in mysterious circumstances by a Syrian anti-aircraft artillery off Latakia, was actually a remotely controlled aircraft (a drone), being used to either spying on Assad’s regime activities in northern Syria, or probing Damascus air defenses, as suggested by a NATO pilot and reportedly routinely done in the Aegean with the Greek ones.
Although the chances that Ankara has modified one its Phantoms to be remotely piloted and used for covert missions inside the Syrian airspace seem to be scarce, I can’t completely rule out the possibility that a sort-of QF-4 (the U.S. aerial target drone F-4) is (or was) flying with the Turkish Air Force....read more
http://theaviationist.com/2012/07/02/tuaf-f4-drone/comment-page-1/#comment-47344
