Iranian F-14's

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 08 Feb 2009, 16:30

To prevent further thread creep in the Polish Herc's thread....

A post in that topic referred to (paraphrasing) - a number of pics of Iranian F-14's, F-4s, F-5s and C-130's on airliner's.net.....

The reality is that only 5 individual F-14s can be positively identified as "flyable" from the pics there apart from one pic -

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-p ... 349418.jpg

(Maybe someone else's eyes are better than mine, but I can't identify all of the aircraft in this pic. The caption suggests 13 F-14's.)

They are serial #'s 3-6020, -6036, -6037, -6058, and -6049.

Being flyable doesn't mean they are combat-ready or combat-survivable.

Mods: I fixed the link for you Ford, ANet has weird linking formats for some reason.

Jumpshot724 · Post by **Jumpshot724** » 08 Feb 2009, 17:13

When the US's position with Iran finally went sour and the final US personel were pulled form Iran, suddenly the Iranian F-14s were grounded with all sorts of problems....

They never fully recoverd

VulcanDriver · Post by **VulcanDriver** » 08 Feb 2009, 17:30

Wasn't there a guy arrested for supplying F-14 parts a few years ago?

KevinJarvis · Post by **KevinJarvis** » 08 Feb 2009, 17:31

I was told there was a time bomb left in the software so that if it wasn't updated the aircraft became basically useless.

Not sure if this software engineer I know at Texas Instruments was kidding or not.

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 08 Feb 2009, 17:54

They certainly fly an interesting mix of western and eastern built aircraft.

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 08 Feb 2009, 20:43

I have heard of the rumored software timebomb, but that rumor has also surfaced concerning other exports, so I've never put any stock in it.

There seems little doubt that most of the avionics, including software, have been reverse engineered in the decades since the initial sale. Not necessarily by the Iranians themselves, but almost certainly by two somewhat obvious other nations. Once reverse-engineered, the domestic industry has definitely had the opportunity to further their own designs --- just look at what Taiwan did after F-16/F-20? sales were initially held up (they bought older F-16's from other coutnries, reverse-engineered them and then designed indigenous aircraft [F-CK-1 ----no kidding, that's the designation!!!] using those insights).

The Iranians have nothing to directly "match" the F-14, but it really is an older generation aircraft now anyway. By that I mean, they haven't designed and built an Iranian copy or anything approaching it. There are better things available depending on the metric used to define "better".

Firebird · Post by **Firebird** » 08 Feb 2009, 21:47

I seem to remember a strong rumour that they gave the Russians a complete F-14 and its weapon system in return for reverse engineering support.

james84 · Post by **james84** » 08 Feb 2009, 22:10

I have installed the Tomcats... both the liveries available (camo and blue-grey)... there are 7 in my FPs, which are the ones included in the IRIAF package on Avsim. How many aircrafts still wear the camo livery?

Ford Friendly · Post by **Ford Friendly** » 08 Feb 2009, 23:25

Firebird wrote:I seem to remember a strong rumour that they gave the Russians a complete F-14 and its weapon system in return for reverse engineering support.

That was no rumour. It was a "sale" with benefits - those you describe. And it wasn't 1, but 4 if I remember correctly.

VulcanDriver · Post by **VulcanDriver** » 09 Feb 2009, 07:20

james84 wrote:I have installed the Tomcats... both the liveries available (camo and blue-grey)... there are 7 in my FPs, which are the ones included in the IRIAF package on Avsim. How many aircrafts still wear the camo livery?

The Israeli Air Force have said that Iran is believed to possess 59 complete F-14s, but only 20 to 25 are estimated to be in service

Also, it seems that the Iranian F-14As have been fitted with Russian made engines and ejection seats and have the capability to launch Russian made air-to-surface anti-ship missiles for attacks on US carriers. These have been nicknamed the Persian Cat.

I think that all the operational F-14s wear the grey camo.

HTH