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Iranian F-14s are barely airworthy, so it's not like they would be able to put up much of a fight.  Iran is the reason all of 'Cats except museum and gate guards have been shredded.  Even the ones on display are pretty much just shells of former glory.

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On 1/5/2020 at 3:19 AM, afoxbat said:

What’re they using for engines?? They haven’t made TF-30 P412’s in a while.

They are actually using the -414 iteration of the engine. In fact they were the first ones to get the new TF30s at that time before the USN received their batch. One of the trade- ins for practically saving Grumman from imminent bankruptcy.

 

They are still flying and they look remarkable doing so. I was one of the very few lucky ones who got a chance to sneak into Iran (when it was still possible) and see them live a little over a year ago. I took about a bazilion pictures and movies of them and already put up some pictures of them somewhere else here on the forum (wish I had the equipment I have now 14 years back when the USN Tomcats went out of service). They did some quite spirited maneuvers and looked in quite decent shape. Burners were still working properly on all of them. Doesn't tell you anything about combat readiness however but I guess they would be stupid to actually tell us so. Albeit, I couldn't care less. I just enjoyed the beautiful looks and the gorgeous sound.🥰 Shame that things are devolving the way it is at the moment. At the moment it looks a lot like the three Persian Cats I saw might be the last ones I ever could enjoy; what a shame.

 

From December 2018 (sorry to all the members that saw them somewhere else already for the repeated posting. I just can't find the other thread.):

 

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Edited by bushande
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Many thanks. Yes, i know I plan on sharing the rest now for quite some time but just can't seem to find the time to eventually post them. Ashes on my top. I'll see to it to somehow post more sometime soon.

 

I could take some more or less decent walk around pics of one of the bird. That thing is just layered with stencils on literally every single panel. Reminds me a bit of the early USAF birds during the Vietnam-war era. A decal sheet for these would easily be a full sheet just for the stencils. All in black and all in english mind you!

 

Wish I could have caught at least one of the two splintered AM-Tomcats but according to the personell I was able to talk to these two birds were deployed to the so-called "Vellayat"-exercise somewhere in the North of the country at the time but I confess I do dig those lovely blue/grey colors a lot as well.

 

Present were the following serials: 3-6029 / 160327, 3-6030 / 160328 and 3-6052 / 160350. Apparently 3-6052 took down an Iraqi Mig-25 in Feb. 1986 with a Phoenix after fending off a raid on some Iranian border towns. 3-6029 seems to have claimed at least two Mig-23s in June 1985. I don't know about 3-6030 though. 3-6030 looked mint, almost new, 6052 looked quite faded but still in good shape and 3029 was in my eyes the most beautiful one. She looked really service worn and weathered with a lot of moderate touch ups but still in vibrant colors. Every modeller would get wet eyes, I tell you. (BTW: Every AMK modeller, note the hips hihihi. 😋😁 just teasing.😊)

 

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This year would have theoretically seen another opportunity to visit Iran if things would have been different, but the way things are lately I fear that door has been shut close permanently. Really sad.

Edited by bushande
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Its a shame we have such poor relations with Iran. Would be amazing if we could work out a deal in which they gave these beautiful birds back to us. I'm sure maintenance has to be costing an arm and leg, at least that's what I would assume. Oh well, beautiful pictures Alex. Its just good to know there are still Tomcats flying out there.

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Wow some great photos there. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

I had heard somewhere they reversed engineered a lot of the equipment including the Phoenix. Their Orions were also brought back to life with the help of someone else.

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Incredible how they've managed to keep them flying.  I wonder what the MTBF is like on those original engine parts.

 

Found some interesting vids:

 

Young Iranian technicians managed to overhaul F-14 Tomcats
https://youtu.be/56nuxEmfn4g

 

How Iran Kept its F-14 Tomcat Flying:
https://youtu.be/8MbrdMccNsM

 

Kish Air Show 2018:
https://youtu.be/Fc-UJDgWAxI

 

 

And some interesting reads:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/grounding-the-ayatollah-s-tomcats-d02551f1104e

https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/how-iran-keeps-its-1970s-f-14-fleet-viable-and-competitive-through-domestic-modernisation

http://flitetime.net/iran.html

 


 

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10 hours ago, Mstor said:

Its a shame we have such poor relations with Iran. Would be amazing if we could work out a deal in which they gave these beautiful birds back to us. I'm sure maintenance has to be costing an arm and leg, at least that's what I would assume. Oh well, beautiful pictures Alex. Its just good to know there are still Tomcats flying out there.

 

Why would we want them back? We're not going to fly them, and we have plenty in museums.

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2 hours ago, habu2 said:

I thought they mostly used them as AWACS birds, the AWG-9 is evidently the most sophisticated radar they have.

 

On 1/5/2020 at 5:26 AM, weirich1 said:

Iranian F-14s are barely airworthy, so it's not like they would be able to put up much of a fight.  Iran is the reason all of 'Cats except museum and gate guards have been shredded.  Even the ones on display are pretty much just shells of former glory.

 

Here are some clips of one of the two splintered AMs and at least a blue bird apparently launching their Phoenix derivative. Hard to verify an actual success of the launch however a firing sequence seems to be working properly on their birds. If it's not their Fakour-90 it would have to be a conventional Phoenix. In each case you would have to give them credit for that. The video has to be recent as the second splintered F-14 (3-6045 / 160343) received that camo just about three years ago. They either indeed managed to conceive a working Phoenix derivative or they somehow managed to maintain the thermal batteries of their remaining Phoenix which would be no less an achievement than building that Fakour-90.

 

I'm not sure how conclusive my logic is but my understanding would be as follows: They are continuously returning units to their F-14 fleet lately with 3-6002 returning from overhaul just early last year and a rather popular return of 3-6039, supposedly the last in the very early Asia minor camo, returning from a mothballed state just about two years ago just as an example. The F-14 is costly and complex to maintain. Why would one increase the existing fleet of birds just for showing off if these airframes wouldn't be in some way operational?! It just wouldn't make sense. I could follow the show-off argument if they maintained a certain number of F-14 units (and even that would be dumb given the secondary status of the IRIAF as a whole in comparison to their IRGC-forces and the importance of their missile program for their extra-territorial ambitions) but they are continuously returning formerly inoperable units to their fleet, i.e. increasing the cost / maintenanace factor. Why would they do that if these units wouldn't be useful in some way?! I tried to keep tabs on them as of 2010 and so far I counted about 43 serials of which images or clips exist that depict them flying (not making any statement about their combat readiness!). Why maintain such a costly and complex system if it was useless? The IRIAF is repeatedly fighting for funding with the IRGC. If those Tomcats wouldn't be of at least some operational value the IRGC would have drained them of fundings long ago let alone allow them to increase their fleet and apparantly overhaul/upgrade them and I seriuously doubt the IRIAF needs a double digit fleet of quasi AWACS.

 

Edited by bushande
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I believe the AWACS comment goes back to the context of the old Iran/Iraq conflict, where I've heard that was indeed one way in which they were used. Of course, many things have happened and changed since then. Clearly there is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about Iran and its capabilities and the F-14 in Iranian use in particular - at least in the public domain. It probably goes for perceptions on both sides. Things are further muddied in that, while some things are public information (for example Iran's purchase of S-300 air defense systems), many other things are indigenously developed or upgraded and there are many questions about how good such systems are. For example, they clearly have some way to go in the development of any sort of modern fighter (most have been variations on the F-5 design), but they do appear to have done quite well when it comes to missiles, drones, guided weapons, etc. I'd be careful to simply write off their capabilities.

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13 hours ago, 82Whitey51 said:

 

Why would we want them back? We're not going to fly them, and we have plenty in museums.

 

I suppose not, though, if they no longer had them, perhaps there wouldn't all the restrictions on parts and someone here would restore and fly one? I just think it would be a nice thing to have one or two that could be flown in the US on occasion. But, its just a pipe dream.

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I bet it would also have been possible to just ask them nicely. They way I got many of them to know I would have been rather confident that they would have been happy to dosome flights for hollywood. But hay, why easy if we can go the hard way?!!! Much more entertaining I suppose hihihihi. (Just teasing!) 😛

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