Qatar is understood to have used highly advanced long-range missiles fired by a Eurofighter Typhoon when it shot down two Iranian bombers close to their home shores late on Monday.
The Soviet-era Su-24s were the first known Iranian aircraft brought down over the Gulf since the regional war started on Saturday.
Qatar's Ministry of Defence said the planes were hit by the country's air force. Five Iranian drones and seven ballistic missiles were also intercepted.
Officials did not give details of where the Iranian-owned planes were shot down. Earlier they had said Iranian drones had attacked a power plant and a site belonging to oil and gas company QatarEnergy.
There have been reports that Qatar flew missions over Iran, but The National has been told that it was most likely that the Iranian Sukhoi Su-24 bombers were airborne some distance from their Arabian Gulf shore when they were picked up on radar.
Two Typhoons on quick-reaction alert – warplanes ready to scramble within minutes – were launched to seek out the Iranian aircraft.
Using their advanced AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar the fighters quickly picked up the Su-24s.
Identifying them as enemy aircraft that were likely to pose a threat to Qatar – which has been hit by Iranian drones and missiles, including at its major gas plants – the Typhoon engaged using its Meteor air-to-air missiles.
The Meteor, built by MBDA, has the largest “no escape zone” of any air-to-air missile in the world, meaning once it is locked on from 60km it will hit the target. It travels at Mach 4, nearly 5,000kph, using a ramjet engine to keep a consistent speed and has a range of 200km. Once launched, its “kill probability” is very high.
“When you look at the flight tracking, time stamps and tracks it very much looks like they were shot down somewhere over the sea,” retired air marshal Sammy Sampson, who is based in Bahrain, told The National.
The former RAF pilot, who was among the air force’s most decorated and experienced pilots, said it was “definitely not a dogfight” over Iran.
“This was a long-range air-to-air missile, which may have been used in a slightly shorter range mode, and all the indications are that the engagement was over the sea.”
He said “fortune favours” a fourth-fifth generation fighter with a clean picture over the sea, without any ground clutter, facing a Su-24.
“In the Meteor you have something that really is world beating and against that type of aircraft, frankly, unless the missile malfunctions there is only going to be one ending.”
On Wednesday, a missile struck the US’s Al Udeid base in Qatar “without causing casualties”.
Gulf countries have condemned the Iranian attacks – particularly their violation of Gulf sovereignty and the resulting loss of civilian life.
Members of the Gulf Co-operation Council said they will take “all necessary measures” to defend their security and territory, reserving the right to respond to what they described as “heinous” and “treacherous Iranian attacks”.
