Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)

Gulf of Sidra incident (1981)
	Part of the Cold War
	; A CGI recreation of Fast Eagle 107's AIM-9J Sidewinder about to hit a Libyan Su-22M3 over Gulf of Sidra.
Date	19 August 1981
Location	Gulf of Sidra, Mediterranean Sea
Result	US Victory Two Su-22M3 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-22M3; GCI radar stations;
Casualties and losses
None	2 aircraft destroyed

In the first Gulf of Sidra incident, 19 August 1981, two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22M3 Fitter-G fired upon two U.S. Grumman F-14A 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. Two further incidents occurred in the area in 1986 and in 1989.