As the enemy missiles began to close the distance to the E-3, the pilot immediately began to fire off flares and deploy multiple chaff canisters, in hopes of spoofing the inbound missiles. In less than forty seconds, the two R-73M Archer missiles got within forty-feet of the E-3’s engines and exploded, spraying the area with shrapnel. This metal cloud ripped apart two of the airplanes’ engines and tore chunks from the wings and fuselage. The fires from the explosion quickly found the fuel bladders in the wings and exploded, causing both wings to snap off and forcing the aircraft to begin a steep dive as it started to spin out of control.
As the first NATO E-3 went down, the second E-3, operated by the American Air Force, immediately took over control of the air battle. A third E-3 was scrambled out of Ramstein Airbase along with additional fighters.
Four minutes after the first E-3 went down, the US Air Force operator who had assumed control of the battle, Major Tony Giovani saw a similar blip on their radar screen. Just as the blip disappeared, four R-37M Arrow missiles appeared out of nowhere, about 62 miles away from their position.
Major Giovani immediately began to take evasive maneuvers; he started to steer the aircraft to a lower altitude immediately, to try and lose the missiles in the ground clutter. Tony immediately knew what must have fired those missiles — a Sukhoi Su-57, the Russian version of the American F-22 Raptor. Even while he had his aircraft in a hard pull, he grabbed his radio and contacted his superiors. “Ground Command, Ground Command, this is Watch Tower Two. There is a Sukhoi Su-57 in the air here. They have just launched a set of missiles at me. Performing evasive maneuvers. You need to get the Raptors and the F-15s airborne quickly. Send to my coordinates to engage the Su-57, over!”
“Watch Tower Two, this is Ground Command. Acknowledged. Currently scrambling additional aircraft to your location,” came the reply.
“I don’t know that we have much chance of surviving this encounter,” thought Tony, “but maybe I just increased our chances.”
As he continued to maneuver his E-3 rapidly, the air battle managers in the back of the aircraft also detected three Beriev A-100 Russian-built Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACs) aircraft, which had suddenly turned on their powerful search radars now that the air war had officially started. They would search for the NATO aircraft and then guide the Russian fighters towards them.
“Lord, help us. I don’t want to die right now,” Major Giovani prayed. “If the last NATO E-3 goes down, then the NATO fighters will have to either fly blind or turn on their own search radars, which will give away their positions to the swarm of enemy aircraft now heading towards them.”
Following Major Giovani’s coordinates, the American F-15s had successfully taken off and gotten within missile range of the MiG-31s. The F-15 pilots had wanted to go after the Fullbacks, but the MiGs had raced ahead to intercept them.
The lead F-15 pilot directed his team, “Fire your AMRAAM missiles at the MIGs from maximum range!”
As sixteen projectiles streaked across the sky towards the MIGs, they left ribbons of smoke and steam behind them. The Russian aircrafts immediately began to take evasive action, but not before firing off their own air-to-air missiles at the Americans. Each MIG discharged three missiles at the F-15s.
Both Russian and American aircraft began to pop flares and chaff canisters to try to spoof each other’s missiles and do their best to evade them. While the F-15s succeeded in shooting down 11 of the 16 MiGs that they had engaged, all four F-15s were shot down.
As the battle in the sky started, a group of Germans in a radar truck were continually adjusting the paths of a Patriot missile battery situated on the military side of the Kiev International Airport; they were attempting to keep aim on the numerous enemy aircraft heading towards them.
Once they finally received confirmation of hostile intent, the officer on watch, Captain Isaac Krüger, hurriedly ran over to the radar operator. “Hey, Alice, we have authorization to fire,” Isaac blurted out. “I want you to prioritize and engage the enemy aircraft; the most pressing threat at the moment is the Su-34s. I count 24 of those Fullbacks — if we are lucky, we will take them all down.”
Alice Weber quickly moved to activate one of the four-missile battery pods, and launched all four missiles at the incoming Fullbacks. She then moved to the next battery of missiles and began to launch the next batch of four Patriot II missiles. As she began to activate the third battery, the other radar operator, “Bucky,” announced, “The Backfires just fired off a wave of cruise missiles at us!”
Captain Krüger, immediately instructed them, “Ok, stop targeting the Fullbacks now. Engage the incoming cruise missiles with all of our remaining missiles. We still have sixteen left, so we should be fine.”
The mood remained calm; they felt confident in shooting down the incoming fire with their own missiles… until a second wave of cruise missiles appeared on their radar screen.
Krüger felt nauseous. He knew in that moment that they would not be able to take all of the incoming cruise missiles down. He had technicians at the first two batteries, doing their best to get the next set of missile pods reloaded, but even under the best training exercise, they had not been able to get them up and ready in less than ten minutes. There just wasn’t time.
Isaac calculated the situation mentally. “The targeting computer now has control of all 24 missiles, and it is going to guide the missiles to the Su-34s and cruise missiles we already locked them on. Well… there’s no reason for us to stay in these vehicles any more, since we are clearly going to be targeted ourselves.”
Captain Krüger yelled, “Everyone, out! Run to the closest bomb bunker and pray you survive!”
While his men ran for protection, Isaac chose to stay behind and make sure the missiles functioned as they should. It was the last time his men saw him. The radar and control vehicle was demolished as soon as the second wave of cruise missiles began to pulverize the airport.
In less than 20 minutes, all of the NATO fighter aircraft flying over Ukraine were destroyed. The Russian Fullbacks began to focus their attack runs against the Ukrainian air defenses and airbases, especially the Kiev International Airport, where the rest of the NATO alert fighters were stationed and still in the process of taking off. They fired off two waves of twenty missiles each. As the first wave of cruise missiles began to streak across the skies to the runways, the missiles dispersed their cluster munitions. As those began to explode on the runways, large craters were formed, making it impossible for any aircraft to take off or land there. They also managed to destroy several German Euro Fighters that had been in the process of taking off.
Just as the Russians were beginning to feel cocky, six of the NATO Patriot missiles got into range of the Fullbacks they had been locked on. As the proximity sensors on the missiles were activated, a cloud of shrapnel was released right into the path of the Su-34s, ripping the hulls of those aircraft apart. Debris from the Fullbacks began raining down from the sky. The larger chunks of the wings and tails flew towards the ground at high speeds, impacting violently.
Two fortunate Fullback pilots had managed to perform evasive maneuvers and escape the path of the incoming Patriot missiles. They pulled their aircraft hard enough that the proximity sensors on the incoming projectiles were never activated. Those missiles streaked right past the Fullbacks, eventually exploding in mini-fireballs and releasing small clouds of shrapnel harmlessly.
Just before the cruise missiles arrived, two Euro Fighters had succeeded in taking off. Their luck was short-lived though; they were quickly shot down while they desperately tried to gain altitude and get into the fight. Even if another helicopter or plane had attempted to use the cratered runway, the MiGs had the airport blanketed in air cover at that point, preventing any additional aircraft or helicopters from getting airborne.