Posted on 02/11/2021 11:34:26 AM PST by Onthebrink
Throughout the 1970s, the Iranian military was armed with U.S.-made equipment from M16 rifles to M60 Patton tanks, while the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF), which was established in 1920, became the only military force other than the United States Navy to be equipped with the F-14 Tomcat and the AIM-54A Phoenix air-to-air missiles. Interestingly enough, the IIAF had also placed an order for more than 150 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft in 1976. However, those deliveries were not made and instead were subsequently sold to the Israeli Air Force.
(Excerpt) Read more at 19fortyfive.com ...
How on earth are they still getting spare parts? Did we turn over manufacturing of the supply chain for those planes too?
“No problem. Dementia Joe and John Effing Kerry will give Iran all the F 14’s they need, together with spare parts and missiles.”
Where will he get them?
That Tomcat/Phoenix combo had a standoff range of about 125 miles. Shoot him down before he sees you. Always wondered why they terminated it.
You might find the article interesting!
F-14’s are a maintenance nightmare. 40 year old ones are going to problematic to say the least. 40 year old Phoenix missiles? Real question.
When all her neighbors are flying F-35's - might as well sell them bi-planes.
From talking to some Air Force friends, it was discovered that the Iranians were getting their hands on theses things to cannibalize for parts. After that discovery they sent in some transformers to clean up.
It would be a blast to run that equipment.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9W7pph9KhYY&feature=emb_title
They are improvising to keep the 25% of their F-14’s operational. Some with cannibalizing, some with fabricating the parts, some probably with local knock off stuff (the electornics and avionics.
China, reverse engineering.
Because the stuff they have now is even better.
I worked with a crew of F16 mechanics on a DOD project. The stuff they told me about the planes and munitions we have now made me not care about the money spent on the DOD.
When they do war games they have to make sure the planes don’t use their equipment as intended so they can make it fair fir the other guys.
One told me a pair of invisible Raptors took out as many F-16s as the planes munitions would allow as they were taking off. No one knew where the Raptors were other than somewhere off the coast of Alaska.
From what I heard about those planes, you’re 100% right.
Back in the Seventies when it was still relatively new, I remember seeing them tied up back near the ramp with barrels under them to collect the leaking jet fuel...
Just gorgeous planes. How I miss them.
I once was nearly fried by one, was checking one of our planes out right behind the jet blast deflector, and the Tomcat went off in full afterburner. Normally, you clear out, but...I missed it and caught caught. Once it starts, you can’t run out from behind that JBD.
It got hotter, and hotter and hotter...I had my face shoved as far into the corner of the wheel well of that A-7 as I could get it with my turtlenecked flight deck jersey pulled up over my exposed mouth and nose...couldn’t breathe, and finally the shot the thing off. My fellow troubleshooter, a bearded guy named Grote, came over with a big grin...
Man. Seeing one of those shot off at night in afterburner, and it just went up, and up and up, lighting the sea all around.
I don’t much mind not being on a deployment, but I do miss watching flight ops.
From China - they build those parts in village garages.
I knew a guy who had been a fighter pilot starting out in the USMC flying A-4 Skyhawks back in the Seventies, went to the Air Force where he flew F-16s most of the time, and ended up in the Air National Guard after more than three decades. (He said he loved flying the Skyhawk)
Been to all the schools, and when I was at his house, he had plaques all over the walls, fighter schools, you name it.
He said he flew every fighter in the US inventory during that time except the F-22. I asked if he had ever flown against an F-22, and he said he did in an exercise right before he retired, when he was in the Air National Guard flying F-16’s. When I asked him what it was like, for this SH fighter pilot, he said:
“It was like being a baby seal.”
From what I heard was that the Solid Fuel motor had issues with cracking and with long term use they didn’t know if the missile would blow up when it was launched. I think there where several misfires/failure to launch issues toward the end.
I got to say, the blacksmiths and machinists in that region are absolute magicians and if anyone could produce these oddball parts it would be the Iranians, Afghans, and Pakistanis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.