“F4s, F5s, F7s, F14s, and MiG-29 aircraft, as well as the Russian Sukhoi aircraft and Boeing 707 and 747.”
A few random thoughts:
-I wonder if those F7’s are Chinese J7’s (their version of the MiG-21) or the old F7 Cutlass?
-Ditto for the F5’s mentioned in the article. Are they Chinese MiG-17’s or the Northrop jet?
-I’d hate to be the one flying an Iranian F14. After all these years of no access to spare parts, I figure those birds have got to be held together with spit and glue. Maybe they’ve cannibalized their Tomcats to put a few of them in good shape, though.
The irony that they are using our 30 year old technology to try and scare us is priceless.
“F4s, F5s, F7s, F14s, and MiG-29 aircraft, as well as the Russian Sukhoi aircraft and Boeing 707 and 747.”
The Mig 29’s are probably the ones that the Saddam Hussein had flown to Iran during the start of the Iraq cleanup, and never returned.
I wonder how many plans will crash due to lack of parts and poor maintenance.
It seems every few weeks you hear of some other fool getting arrested and indicted for trying to obtain or ship spare parts to Iran.
Makes ya wonder how many folks here have been getting away with it and not got caught.
Chinese J7s bought in the 80s and F5 Tigersharks from when they bought them in the 70s...
One in five of the 70 F14s bought in the 70s are estemated operational in degraded form. The rest have extreme metal fategue and have been canabalized or they were destroyed.
Public domain intelligence estimates put the number of flyable IRIAF Tomcats at 44. Iran has gotten help from Soviet, French, Israeli, Chinese and traitorous American sources to keep the fleet flying.
IF they have a flying F-14, it is nothing more than a shell, not a fighter. Trust me. . . .(former Pentagon gunrunner).
The F-5s are Northrop aircraft sold to Iran when the Shaw was in power.
The F7s are Chinese supplied copies. The F-5s are a combination of U.S. built and Iranian copies and re-builds.
Think of where Iran can recieve assistance from. Think China for assistance in tooling for F-14 spare parts. Any part these days can be re-manufactured. The Iranian F-14 are well known to the Coaliton forces in the Gulf. They generate a healthy sortie rate. The same goes for their F-4 Phantom fleet.