Derek Jones, executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, told American Family News he believes a MANPAD was likely used by Iran’s military to hit the F-15 fighter jet April 3 in southern Iran.
Jones, a veteran fighter pilot, flew a variety of fighter aircraft in combat missions and was a “Top Gun” award recipient in the F-111 fighter-bomber.
MANPAD, the acronym for man-portable air defense system, launches a missile that locks on to a low-flying aircraft’s heat signature.
During a rescue operation to find the F-15’s second crew member, the aircraft’s weapons systems officer, an A-10 Warthog was also hit but the pilot managed to return to Kuwait.
“That's what most experts are suggesting,” Jones said. “It was some sort of shorter-fired weapon that took both of them down.”
Iran has imported shoulder-fired SAMs from Russia and China, and it produces its own variant called a Misagh that is based on a Chinese MANPAD.
A shoulder-fired missile is considered the likely weapon because Iran’s air defense system has been obliterated, which was evident when slow-moving and vulnerable B-52 Stratofortress bombers were used in late March to hit missile production facilities in Iran.
Because the MANPAD is relatively easy to use, Jones said “all sorts of people” in Iran – not just regular army soldiers – could be trained to use it to attack low-flying aircraft.
Regarding the missing crew member, who was rescued in a spectacular operation, Jones said pilots go through extensive training called SERE, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape.
“The training itself is classified, so we don't really talk about it,” he shared, “but there is little doubt in my mind that they knew where he was the whole time.”
