30 July 1970 – 26 Tammuz 5730
In a dog-fight over the Suez Canal, Israeli air-force planes brought down five Soviet MiG-21 supersonic jet-fighters with their Russian pilots. Operation “Rimon 20” took place in the throes of the Israeli-Egyptian War of Attrition, after Soviet pilots arrived to reinforce Egyptian air-force personnel. In 1969, Israeli guard posts along the Suez Canal were subjected to constant shelling by the Egyptians. The response was a series of Israeli attacks on Egyptian targets around the canal and deeper into enemy territory. The Egyptians had nothing to match the Israeli fighter planes – Mirages and Sky-hawks – let alone the new Phantoms then coming into active service. In 1969 and 1970, Egyptian president Nasser twice visited Moscow to ask for increased military aid.
The Soviets were happy to oblige, preparing a large delegation of military personnel – pilots, controllers, radar operators and technicians – to staff a full division of new surface to air missiles, three squadrons of MiG-21 MF fighter-planes and considerable additional equipment.
Preferring to avoid a head on collision with the Soviets, the Israeli government ordered the army not to attack the Russian missile batteries. Egyptian military confidence was boosted by the number of Israel planes brought down by Soviet surface to air missiles; penetrating Israeli airspace over the Sinai desert, Russian planes fired on Israeli fighter-planes and forced one Sky-hawk to make an emergency landing. At this point the Israeli government realized it was about to lose aerial superiority to the Russian forces, and decided to exploit Russian over-confidence to draw the MiGs into pursuit of Israeli aircraft and destroy them. The plan worked perfectly; Israeli planes penetrated Egyptian airspace and attacked a number of targets, the Soviet pilots took the bait and pursued them, only to be attacked by another squadron of Israeli planes. Five MiGs were shot down while still over Egypt. Israeli air-superiority was restored, and the Russian pilots restricted themselves to patrolling the skies over the Suez Canal.