Defecting Libyan air force fighter planes identified

SISMEC has identified the aircraft from serial model numbers (502 and 508) as French-manufactured Dassault Mirage F1ED fighter-bombers from a squadron stationed at the enormous Uqba ibn Nafi airbase (the former Wheelus Air Base under US control from 1943 to 1970), east of Tripoli.

The pilots, a pair of senior colonels, had been reportedly ordered to bomb civilian protesters in Benghazi and refused.

From photographs it is also clear that each of the two aircraft was equipped with a pair of what appear to be French Matra rocket pods, each in turn fully loaded each with twenty-four 68mm SNEB rockets.

Although the exact target is unknown at this time, a weapons load of 96 rockets with high-explosive or armor-piercing warheads would have caused immense carnage amongst any crowd caught in open or even sheltering in buildings such as mosques.

The defection of these two senior pilot officers highlights just why the Libyan regime is so dependent on mercenaries for suppression of the protests.

The "North African Military Balance" published by CSIS in 2009 reported that the Libyan Air Force was heavily dependent on foreign pilots and ground crew, including Pakistanis, Syrians and citizens of the former Soviet Union. The Pakistan Air Force is one of the world's largest operators of Mirage fighter aircraft.

The French Mirage fighter aircraft were delivered to Libya  between January 1978 and October 1979, but faced severe maintenance problems thanks to French sanctions imposed because of Libya's conflict with Chad. However Nikolas Sarkozy's government signed an agreement with Libya in 2006 to upgrade and refurbish 14 of these aircraft, which appear to be in excellent condition.

President Sarkozy has only just condemned today (Monday) what he called the "unacceptable use of force" in  Libya and called for an "immediate end" to the violence, but did not not comment specifically on this attempted use of advanced French weapons on Libyan civilians. Britain has revoked weapons licenses to Libya and Bahrain in response to the targeting of civilians, but France and other European Union states have yet to follow suit.