"Matt Wiser" wrote in message news:3f762c9c@bg2....

"Tarver Engineering" wrote:

"Ragnar" wrote in message
link.net...

"Hobo" wrote in message
...


Some people here have been claiming that
the Iranians made effective and
widespread use of the Phoenix missle against
Iraq. I have always read
that after the Shah fell US civilian technicians
altered the F-14s they
were servicing so that they could never
fire the Phoenix. If the
Iranians *did* use the Phoenix, how did
they overcome the sabotage?

They had the maintenance manuals, US-trained
technicians, spare parts, and
time.

They made a homebuilt Phoenix. I went to school
with Iranian engineering
students at CSUF, they have the skill.


Not to mention clandestine US assistance in the early 1980s, plus
shipments
of -54A missiles when the USN went to the -54C. It appears that they have
reverse-engineered the -54A and build an unliscensed version of Phoenix.

Matt,
USN AIM-54As (and even less so their AIM-54Cs) are the same as Iranian
AIM-54As: so, they could not have been given to Iran even during the
"Irangate" affair.

The Iranians knew this so they also never asked for complete missiles. What
they were looking for instead (and what was usually smuggled) were
maintenance+upgrade packages and batteries for their AIM-54s.

Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php
and,
Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat:
http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk/t...hp/title=S6585