Klingon Empire "IS Edition" Finds Its Wings

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29660029

Islamic State 'training pilots to fly fighter jets'

Iraqi pilots who have joined Islamic State are training its members in Syria to fly three captured fighter jets, according to a UK-based activist group that monitors the conflict.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said witnesses had seen the planes being flown around a military airport in Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces have launched an attack on IS militants near Tikrit.

The city was among the areas in Syria and Iraq seized by IS this year.

Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the SOHR, said IS was using Iraqi officers who were pilots under ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to train fighters in Syria.

"People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back," he said.

(continued)

[JimC]

"...they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back..."

They actually managed to return to base!

Clearly ace material...

[jaydot]

hardly sounds credible. any pilots around to explain how bloody hard it is to fly a military jet?

[cronus]

hardly sounds credible. any pilots around to explain how bloody hard it is to fly a military jet?

Not hard. It's taking the head of enemy fighters that's hard.

[piscator]

hardly sounds credible. any pilots around to explain how bloody hard it is to fly a military jet?

In a pinch, it would probably take me about 1/2 day of sim time to learn what I need to know to fly a MIG-21, and probably a couple hours of dual time before you could turn me lose. Another 5-6 hours to get decent with the nav, sensors, and weapons systems.

This is provided I could live that long in Syrian airspace before a real fighter pilot vectors in and incinerates me before I even knew she was there.

[klr]

hardly sounds credible. any pilots around to explain how bloody hard it is to fly a military jet?

In a pinch, it would probably take me about 1/2 day of sim time to learn what I need to know to fly a MIG-21, and probably a couple hours of dual time before you could turn me lose. Another 5-6 hours to get decent with the nav, sensors, and weapons systems.

This is provided I could live that long in Syrian airspace before a real fighter pilot vectors in and incinerates me before I even knew she was there.

As in the Turks or the Israelis ...

[cronus]

You'd have though one of the objectives of the recent allied air campaign would be to make it very dangerous to take off from a airfield because of the holes? Who is in charge of the US military these days? Someone with a middle name Hussein?