[Panther Al]

From what I recall, loosing the 117 to the SA3 wasn't that big a shock to those that knew what the situation was. At the time I was gaming with an AF guy whose job was to portray Russian Air Defense. I asked him about it and he laughed. Basically, he pointed out the usual rule of warfare: Don't do the same thing at the same time at the same place for days in a row. In this case, the pilots, knowing they was in an invincible aircraft would make its runs down that Mountain Valley night after night. The Serbs noted that their people in the valley reported that a jet would scream over them at the same time for the past few days. Well, on night four, they placed a Goa Battery aimed at the point where any aircraft screaming down it would have to exit at, and placed a guy at the other end with a telephone. As soon as that guy heard the plane, the battery pumped out massive amounts of power into a *very* small area, and placed the finger on the launch button. As soon as they heard the aircraft, they launched blind, and as soon as the missile was halfway to the valley opening, the 117 exited right at the focus of all that Radar energy. Oops.

Less a dig on the technology of neither plane nor missile, but massive props to the Serb Commander who came up with that plan - like it or not, that was genius. Even if the circumstances that he took advantage of will never happen again.