Libyan Air Wars: Part 1: 1973-1985

Description

Between 1973 and 1989, various Western powers and Libya were entangled in a seemingly never-ending exchange of blows. Supposedly launched in retaliation for one action or the other, this confrontation resulted in a number of high-profile, even through low-scale, clashes between the Libyan Arab Air Force (LAAF), the US Navy and even the French. Meanwhile, almost as a sideshow, the LAAF - quantitatively one of the most potent air forces in North Africa and the Middle East - also saw intensive deployment in Chad. Initially, with sporadic fighting between different parties for the control of N'Djamena, the Chadian capital, this conflict eventually turned into a major war when Libya invaded the country outright. The LAAF deployed not only French-made Mirage but also Soviet-made fighter-bombers of MiG and Sukhoi design, Mil-designed helicopters and even bombers of Tupolev design, to establish her dominance over the extensive battlefield of the Sahara Desert. Because of the Cold War but also due to confrontation with Libya over a number of other issues, France - a one-time major arms supplier to Libya - and the USA gradually got dragged into the war. Deployments of their troops and intelligence services in Chad, Egypt and the Sudan never resulted in a full-scale war against Libya, but time and again culminated in small-scale aerial operations that proved crucial to developments on the ground, several of which are still a matter of extensive debate. Detailing not only the aerial operations but the ground war and the geo-political background of these conflicts, and illustrated with over 100 contemporary photographs, maps and all-new colour profiles, this volume provides a unique insight into an otherwise completely forgotten conflict that raged from the skies over the southern Mediterranean to southern Chad and northern Sudan, yet one that not only represented a formative period of the LAAF, but which also prompted a number of crucial modifications and developments in France and the USA.

Military historian and aviation-journalist, Albert Grandolini, was born in France and gained an MA in history from Paris I Sorbonne University. His primary research focus is on contemporary conflicts in general and particularly on the military history of Asia. Having spent his childhood in South Vietnam, the Vietnam War has been one of his main fields of research. He is the author of the books "The Fall of the Flying Dragon, South Vietnamese Air Force (1973-1975)" with Harpia Publishing and "Armor of the Vietnam War: the Asian Forces", Concord Publishing. He is also co-author of the two volumes on Libyan Air Wars with Helion in the Africa@War Series. He had also written numerous articles for various British, French and German magazines, such as "Air Enthusiast", "Flieger Revue Extra", "Fana de l'aviation", "Tank Zone" and "Batailles et Blindes". He has regularly contributed to the Air Combat Information Group (ACIG) and the Au Dela de la Colline military history French Website. Arnaud Delalande is a researcher and author from Tours, in France. Military history and the history of military aviation in particular, especially deployment of air power in Africa and in former French colonies, have long been his passion. He is the editor of Puisance Aerienne (airpower.over-blog.com) and contributes to Alliance Geostrategique (alliancegeostrategique.org). He has become one of few foreigners with a deep interest in the recent Chadian wars, as well as French military operations in that country. He has published several related articles in specialized French magazines. Tom Cooper is an Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian. Following a career in worldwide transportation business - during which he established a network of contacts in the Middle East and Africa - he moved into narrow-focus analysis and writing on small, little-known air forces and conflicts, about which he has collected extensive archives. That resulted in specialisation in such Middle Eastern air forces as of those of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, plus various African and Asian air forces. Except for authoring and co-authoring more than 30 books - including an in-depth analysis of major Arab air forces at wars with Israel in period 1955-1973 - and over 1000 articles, Cooper is a regular correspondent for multiple defence-related publications.