Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
On December 23, 2002, the first known air to air battle between a manned fighter plane and an unmanned aerial drone took place in the sky above Iraq, when an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter jet shot down an American General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.
The text narrated in this video is from the original article at historyandheadlines.com/history-short-fighter-jet-1-drone-0
Author: Major Dan
Editor and Narrator: Dr. Zar
The following media files are in the public domain for various reasons or have no known copyright restrictions:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hewitt-Sperry_Automatic_Airplane_1918.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iraqi_MiG-25.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kettering_Aerial_Torpedo_Bug_USAF.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MQ-1B_Predator_unmanned_aircraft.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MQ-9_Reaper_aerial_video_DOD_107212162-5e1342c0d88af.webm
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Predator_Hellfire_launch_in_Iraq.theora.ogv
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radioplane_OQ-2A_USAF.jpg
The image by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation available at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orlan-10_UAV_operation_-_from_takeoff_to_landing.webm is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
The images by caelan available at pixabay.com/videos/arabia-middle-east-desert-map-30087 and by Edurs34 available at pixabay.com/illustrations/board-chalk-chalkboard-education-5585922 are licensed under the Pixabay License: pixabay.com/service/license
Images used in this video are believed to be (based on their file descriptions at the time of access by us) either in the public domain or available per a Creative Commons license or per “fair use”. No copyright infringement is intended. If you are the originator of any image used in this video and would like us to name you and/or include a link to the original source in this video’s description, we will gladly do so.
Please support this channel on Patreon at patreon.com/historyandheadlines
Thank you for watching this video!
On December 23, 2002, the first known air to air battle between a manned fighter plane and an unmanned aerial drone took place in the sky above Iraq, when an Iraqi MiG-25 fighter jet shot down an American General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.
The text narrated in this video is from the original article at historyandheadlines.com/history-short-fighter-jet-1-drone-0
Author: Major Dan
Editor and Narrator: Dr. Zar
The following media files are in the public domain for various reasons or have no known copyright restrictions:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hewitt-Sperry_Automatic_Airplane_1918.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iraqi_MiG-25.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kettering_Aerial_Torpedo_Bug_USAF.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MQ-1B_Predator_unmanned_aircraft.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MQ-9_Reaper_aerial_video_DOD_107212162-5e1342c0d88af.webm
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Predator_Hellfire_launch_in_Iraq.theora.ogv
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radioplane_OQ-2A_USAF.jpg
The image by Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation available at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orlan-10_UAV_operation_-_from_takeoff_to_landing.webm is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en
The images by caelan available at pixabay.com/videos/arabia-middle-east-desert-map-30087 and by Edurs34 available at pixabay.com/illustrations/board-chalk-chalkboard-education-5585922 are licensed under the Pixabay License: pixabay.com/service/license
Images used in this video are believed to be (based on their file descriptions at the time of access by us) either in the public domain or available per a Creative Commons license or per “fair use”. No copyright infringement is intended. If you are the originator of any image used in this video and would like us to name you and/or include a link to the original source in this video’s description, we will gladly do so.
Please support this channel on Patreon at patreon.com/historyandheadlines
Thank you for watching this video!
