The danger of ISIS creating its own airforce?

Ambitious1999

There is no doubt that IS has captured many fighter jets and war planes in Syria and Iraq. The fear is they could train members to fly these jets and use jihadist pilots who've joined IS.

There is evidence of a possible IS airforce as seen in this picture of an IS fighter jet pilot.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201701091049400367-us-coalition-strikes-raqqa/

What if IS starts flying sorties over Europe and even committing WW2 style air raids over Britain like Hitler did?

Is enough being done? Why are we not destroying all IS aircraft in IS territory?

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

staircase

Original post by Ambitious1999

There is no doubt that IS has captured many fighter jets and war planes in Syria and Iraq. The fear is they could train members to fly these jets and use jihadist pilots who've joined IS.

There is evidence of a possible IS airforce as seen in this picture of an IS fighter jet pilot.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201701091049400367-us-coalition-strikes-raqqa/

What if IS starts flying sorties over Europe and even committing air raids over Britain?

Is enough being done? Why are we not destroying all IS aircraft in IS territory?

It would be soo much harder to bomb britain from the air then to carry out terrorist attacks on the ground

Reply 2

JooW

As far as I'm aware you couldn't reach from Syria to Britain in a jet without refuelling in Europe

Reply 3

Ambitious1999

Original post by JooW

As far as I'm aware you couldn't reach from Syria to Britain in a jet without refuelling in Europe

They could certainly make a one way sortie to Britain but not have enough fuel to return and might simply ditch in the sea to avoid capture.

The worse scenario is if IS reaches the Syrian coast they could take control of Syrian Royal Navy aircraft carriers which would allow them to get closer to Britain for their sorties and also take submarines with SAMs. Britain doesn't have any functioning aircraft carriers at present.

Reply 4

username2977534

I doubt it, for a start these jets cost a lot to maintain and currently ISIS is on the retreat; meaning that it will primarily be focusing on the frontline and centralising their expenditures on those areas. Secondly, the armaments for these planes are uber expensive and once again, their attention is elsewhere. Thirdly, ISIS cannot replace any downed jets and any country in Northern/Western Europe will presumably have a rather good response time, let alone SAM's and other ground to air missiles. Another factor is the training of the pilots, Western fighter jet pilots will have undergone intensive training from experts in their field for a prolonged amount of time; the ISIS pilots will have had minimal training which will somewhat hinder the utility of their air force. Lastly, the state of the planes will not be very good as the only way to capture a modern useful one is by shooting down a Turkish or Russian jet; not going to put it in the best condition. Or steal some Syrian rust buckets. All in all, the chance of ISIS building and utilising an airforce is very close to nil.

Reply 5

stoyfan

Jesus christ, you are the definition of jumping to conclusions. Yes a man is standing in the cockpit of a MiG21. Does that mean that ISIS has an airforce? No! You need to ask yourself whether the aircraft is operational and whether they can even refuel, rearm and recrew it. The most probable answer to that is that they can't do any of those thing.

" Is enough being done? Why are we not destroying all IS aircraft in IS territory?"

How the hell is anyone supposed to answer that? You and I don't work for the millitary so we don't know what kind of targets the western airforces are hitting.

Reply 6

username47781

Even if they did succeed in flying one, it would be blown out the sky before it got anywhere near the UK.

Reply 7

Pikachū

Is this a joke? Firstly there's no way a jet has enough fuel to fly for that long and even if it did it would be blown out the sky before even getting close.

Reply 8

Doones

Original post by Rock Fan

Even if they did succeed in flying one, it would be blown out the sky before it got anywhere near the UK.

^this.

They would be blown out of the sky within a few minutes of taking off.

Reply 9

Jammy Duel

There is no real threat, even if we assume that they do have functioning planes, and we assume they can train the people, and we assume they can get the correct fuel, and we assume the planes aren't blown to hell before they even take off have you seen the sorts of planes they will be using? They wouldn't make it out of Syria, and as soon as they enter NATO airspace they'll have like 5 minutes left.

Reply 10

Ambitious1999

Original post by zpx

>sputnik
>not propaganda
pick one lol
A good read on the subject: http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2074-6-ways-youve-probably-read-russian-propaganda-today.html

Raids over Britain? Be serious.
Even if they had enough planes, training pilots takes a lot of time. Even if they capture a large number of pilots (and force them to be 100% cooperative, which is already a bit improbable), they can't just make jet pilots from a bunch of Arab tribesmen in a month or less.
Even in the Syrian warzone they would have a hard time being effective. If they could magically smuggle a plane in Britain, RAF would intercept and destroy them in no time.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y-V2iMR1CKo

Reply 11

username47781

Original post by Ambitious1999

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y-V2iMR1CKo

Not being horrible but I do feel like you are scaremongering.

Reply 12

Tempest II

From what I gather, Da'esh have bought some drones which they're using for ISTAR purposes & carrying the odd sub-munition but that's about the extent of their capability.

Reply 13

thatswrong.

NATO would blow them up before they can scream allahu akbar.

Reply 14

Tempest II

Original post by Ambitious1999

Syria has never had & probably will never have an aircraft carrier.

Reply 15

Ambitious1999

Original post by Tempest II

Syria has never had & probably will never have an aircraft carrier.

Well our moronic government selling HMS Illustrious to Turkey of all places to be scrapped doesn't help. Not only is it an insult to our fine RN ships but what if IS gets hold of it? Erdogan can't be trusted he could sell it to IS. And god forbid how many nuclear submarines we've given to Turkey for scrap that could end up in IS ownership.
An aircraft might be hard to fly but a ship is a lot easier to sail and no doubt IS has plenty of engineers in its ranks who could maintain the ship.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 16

RF_PineMarten

The only aircraft ISIS has even the possibility of capturing are the Syrian air force's old Soviet era aircraft which are outdated and would be easily and quickly blown out of the sky. The Syrians would probably shoot them down themselves if ISIS tried to use them, and they can be bombed from the air too. That's if ISIS could even get them of the ground - they need expertise to fly and maintain them, and aircraft in captured bases tend to be old broken ones which are therefore useless except maybe as spare parts.

ISIS apparently had 2 working aircraft at one point, with reports of them being used in practice flights, and the Syrian government later claimed to have bombed them. The aircraft have never been seen in use by ISIS since, so either the initial reports of their capture was wrong or the government did bomb them as they claimed to have done.

Reply 17

JamesN88

How do you dream up this inane bull****?

Reply 18

LibertyMan

I really darn hope so! What could be better than getting first-hand experience for our pilots fighting modern figher jets in non-asymetrical warfare AGAINST AIRCRAFT BELONGING TO OUR ENEMIES? (e.g Russian designs).

This is truly wonderful! Please let it happen.