Mossad recruited an Iraqi pilot—and landed his Soviet fighter in Israel

On August 16, 1966, an Iraqi fighter pilot delivered an extraordinary intelligence prize to Israel: an intact Soviet MiG-21. Captain Munir Redfa's defection had been arranged with Mossad. The aircraft gave Israel the chance to examine, and fly against, a fighter used by its adversaries.

The US National Archives' account says Israeli agents had been approached about Redfa in 1964. It describes a pilot frustrated by the effect of his Christian background on promotion and interested in life in the West.

According to that account, a meeting with Israeli agents in Europe brought an offer of money, citizenship and employment. Redfa insisted that his family also be taken out of Iraq. On the eventual flight to Israel, Israeli fighters escorted him to Hatzor airbase, where the aircraft landed safely.

The intelligence dividend continued after the landing. Israel tested the aircraft and developed tactics against it. The National Security Archive's collection records a subsequent American loan lasting from January 23 to April 8, 1968. At Area 51, the Soviet fighter received the American designation YF-110.

The American exploitation project was called HAVE DOUGHNUT. Its goals included checking existing Air Force and Navy combat maneuvers, discovering the MiG's tactical limitations, and improving methods for defeating it. A secret acquisition had become a controlled opportunity to compare weapons, pilots and maneuvers.

The released collection includes a 310-page tactical evaluation dated August 1, 1969, prepared by the US Air Force's Foreign Technology Division for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The stolen fighter had supplied American analysts with an opportunity to measure an adversary's aircraft at close range.