Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)

Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
Part of the Cold War
A CGI recreation of Fast Eagle 107's AIM-9 Sidewinder about to hit a Libyan Su-22 over Gulf of Sidra.
Date 19 August 1981 Location Gulf of Sidra, Mediterranean Sea Result US Victory Two Su-22s shot down
Belligerents
United States	Libya
Commanders and leaders
Ronald Reagan	Muammar Gaddafi
Strength
2 F-14A Tomcats 1 E-2C Hawkeye 1 aircraft carrier (Nimitz Class)	2 Su-22s GCI radar stations
Casualties and losses
None	2 aircraft destroyed

In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Su-22 Fitters fired upon two U.S. F-14 Tomcats and were subsequently shot down off the Libyan coast. Libya had claimed that the entire Gulf was their territory, at 32° 30′ N, with an exclusive 62-nautical-mile (115 km; 71 mi) fishing zone, which Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asserted as "The Line of Death" in 1973.^[1] Two further incidents occurred in the area in 1986 and in 1989.