Kira Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Iran is now the sole operator of the F-14 Tomcat: http://theaviationist.com/2014/04/20/iran-stages-massive-aerial-parade-with-f-14-f-4-mig-29-and-several-other-warplanes/ Well, at least someone has the sense to keep that beauty in the air! What to do about a lack of AIM-54 Phoenixes? How about Hawks? http://forums.airforce.ru/attachments/holodnaya-voina/23324d1268311517-skyhawk.jpg/ Not so sure about the authenticity of that one! It seems that this paint scheme might have been "borrowed" from someone else: (US Navy Blue Angels demo team) Here's a three part documentary on Iranian F-14s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sya-9XDpfiM&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BJ1cdMHzKM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNmgR_zcTNI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum Painless Posted March 12, 2015 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted March 12, 2015 Why aren't they all busy bombing ISIS ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rox Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 They actually did bomb ISIS: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/03/iran-bombs-isis-in-iraq-says-us Just not sure if with Tomcats. Iran was reluctant to send its F-14's to bomb even Saddam's Iraq when Iran was at full fledged war with it. They only did a very few sorties in Iraq with these planes as they were too valuable, they used F-4 phantoms for operations inside Iraq a lot more. Otherwise F-14 were used for Iran's airspace defense and as an early warning system, as their AWG-9 radars had a range of up to 150km, thus they would patrol the border/front and pick up any incoming air attack from far away. Of course the F-14 was vastly superior to Iraqi Migs and could down them with AIM-54's from very far away with impunity. The Iraqis learned to run away if they ever thought an F-14 was around. It was only after they got Mirage F1's from France a year after the war started that Iraqis had a fighting chance in the air, and indeed the first Iranian F-14 was shot down by a Mirage F1. Still, far more Iraqi Mirage F1's were shot down than Iranian F-14's, if I recall correctly Iran only lost a handful during the war, whereas Iraq lost a few dozen Mirages. Iran did lose a lot more F-4 though. One of the few Iranian F-14 ops inside Iraq was the epic raid on Al-Waleed airbase on the far west of Iraq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H3_airstrike You can see Iran's F-14 on Google Earth in a few places, for example here by the hangars in Khatami Air Force base. Due to parts shortages it's estimated that out of the original 70-something craft perhaps only a dozen are operational today, despite Iran supposedly having reverse-engineered some technologies involved with various success rates. https://www.google.hr/maps/place/Esfahan,+Isfahan,+Iran/@32.7651579,51.8969452,603m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x3fbc35fe8c326799:0x7ab57816ef5837f5 I remember peering out of the bus on the ride from Esfahan to Yazd hoping to see an F-14 in the air or behind one of the many walls with guardhouses that flanked the road for a long time, but later I found out that while military installations, none of those I rode by were actually air bases, Khatami airbase being more north of the road in question Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum Painless Posted March 13, 2015 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted March 13, 2015 Interesting stuff Rox, But the article says that the Pentagon claims that Iran carried out raids on ISIS and Iran denys it ? Wasn't it strange that after 11 years of war and over a million dead that Iraq should send it's airforce to Iran as soon as the gulf war started . According to some sources it was a F14 that was at the same airport as the airliner that the USS Vincennes shot down which caused the confusion with IFF and ultimately the tragedy. Mick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rox Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 Interesting stuff Rox, But the article says that the Pentagon claims that Iran carried out raids on ISIS and Iran denys it ? Wasn't it strange that after 11 years of war and over a million dead that Iraq should send it's airforce to Iran as soon as the gulf war started . According to some sources it was a F14 that was at the same airport as the airliner that the USS Vincennes shot down which caused the confusion with IFF and ultimately the tragedy. Mick. I don't know about Iran's motives to deny this but I'm sure they have all the reason to want to bomb ISIS in Iraq - Iraq is both an Iranian satellite state more than anything else, and ISIS is a regional opponent to Iran both in practical and ideological terms. Yeah that Iraq sent its planes to Iran of all places is beyond weird, especially as Syria was much more of an ally. On the other hand, Iran confiscated those planes as "the first stage of Iraq-Iran war reparations". Interesting about the IFF thing, I never looked more closely at that whole tragedy so I wouldn't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2. Administrators Jabo Posted March 16, 2015 2. Administrators Share Posted March 16, 2015 The Syrian border was part of the no-fly zone imposed in the early stages of that conflict and if I remember correctly before the Iraqi jets were moved. Iran was pretty much the only place they could go without being taken out. As it turned out the vaunted Iraqi Air Force was a bit of a damp squib, the coalition air forces had far more trouble with SAMs and AAA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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