"Venik" wrote in message
...
Tom Cooper wrote:

Besides, when you state that the MiG-25 or MiG-31 have had such an
"impact"
on US planing that the SR-71 was retired, why don't you then also
explain
about the impact of the F-14 on further developments of MiG-25s?

Because we are talking about SR-71 and MiG-25. We can also talk about
the impact of the MiG-25 on the development of the F-14, but this
wouldn't really have anything to do with SR-71, would it?

Well, if you would know what are you actually talking about then you'd know
that it actually has to do. Then, the SR-71 came into existence from a
project that was also developed into the YF-12. And... the YF-12 was
equipped with a direct predecessor of the AWG-9 radar, and armed with a
direct predecessor of the AIM-54....

Namely, this was stopped on a direct order from Moscow after a second
Soviet-flown MiG-25BMs on testing in Iraq was shot down by Iranian F-14s
(using "non-operational" AIM-54s) - in 1987.

If you want to talk about the F-14, then, perhaps, you should start
another thread, unless, of course, your intention is to shift the topic
of this discussion to the Iran-Iraq war...

You're explaining about the - supposed - impact of the MiG-25 and MiG-31
(the last of which was actually developed to counter B-1s and their AGM-86
ALCMs) on SR-71.

I said, "OK, no problem". And, then I asked you why don't you explain about
the impact of (extremely negative) experiences from the testing of Soviet
equipment in Iran-Iraq War, which was _indeed_ highly influential for (the
end of) development of MiG-25?

If, "this is not the right thread to talk about that" is your only answer,
no problem, just say so...

...(during which there were no
verifiable MiG-25 kills by the F-14 - just a lot of claims by the
glorious Iranian AF.

If there is no "verifiable" MiG-25-kill scored by IRIAF F-14s against IrAF
and Soviet MiG-25s during that war, then, please be so kind to explain:
- why are there pictures of MiG-25-wreckage (like on p.64 of "Iranian F-14
Units in Combat", just for example)?
- why are there ex-IrAF MiG-25 pilots who confirm a loss of at least two
dozens of Iraqi and Soviet Foxbats to Iranian F-14s?
- why do the US intel documents one can get via FOIA procedures confirming
Iranian and Iraqi documents, pilot- and eyewitness-accounts?

One MiG-25RB was downed by an Iranian Hawk.

Well, the IRIAF I-HAWKs rather got something like four, but that's another
story.

What I'd like to know here is the following: as you're so sure that only one
IrAF Foxbat was shot down by Iranians, then explain us here how it comes
that according to a document I've got released from the Central MoD Archive
in Moscow, Iraq has got over 60 MiG-25s from USSR between 1980 and 1989.
According to the same document, and also US intel documents released
according to FOIA procedures, however, there were barely 30 of them left by
1991.

How do you explain this difference? What happened to 30 MiG-25s delivered to
Iraq but missing by 1991?

Also, if we're now going back to the overall pictu even if only 1 Foxbat
was shot down by Iranian MIM-23s, in total that makes three shot down over
Lebanon by the Israelis, one by the Iranians, and two by USAF in 1991.
That's six MiG-25s - at least (the actual number is over 30, but never
mind). Could you now explain us how many SR-71s were shot down in something
like 4.000 SAM-firings against them?

I've read your book about the Iran-Iraq war and you don't present any
evidence of the MiG-25 - F-14 encounters you describe in such vivid
details. Just a bunch on baloney.

Of course: my books are full of no evidence for such encounters, and lots of
baloney. Everybody knows this meanwhile.

BTW, what is the "evidence" for all these "successful" interceptions of
SR-71s by Soviet fighters you're talking about? Any gun-camera pictures or
radar bands at hand?

Oh, and, BTW #2, I also asked:

- Can you name a single book that would explain the impact of MiG-31 on the
US planning?

- Would you be so kind to tell us why were all the orders for IFR-equipped
MiG-25s for Libya, Syria and Iraq cancelled in late 1987/1988?

Are you able to offer a reasonable answer to these questions, or do you
prefer to ignore them again?

--


Tom Cooper
Freelance Aviation Journalist & Historian
Vienna, Austria

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Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:
http://www.acig.org/pg1/content.php

Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S7875

Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...hp/title=S6585

African MiGs
http://www.acig.org/afmig/

Arab MiG-19 & MiG-21 Units in Combat
http://www.ospreypublishing.com/titl...=S6550~ser=COM

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