Tom Cooper writes:

Dave,
don't know if you want to know, but they bought only 32 F-4Ds (and 177
F-4Es) - and these were supplied without any IRST-systems (their Phantoms
had no housings under the chin).

Hi Tom.
Scary. I retired from the Navy in 1976 and went to work as an engineer at a
large well known company on RT 128 outside of Boston. I specifically worked on
the AN/AAD-5 system, and our customer was the Shah of Iran for use with the
F-4s bought from us. I imagine they are now obsolete.


Their F-4Ds were delivered between 1968 and 1970 so are now actually between
34 and 35 years old. Some 15 have survived the war with Iraq, and remain
very much in service. In fact, instead of GBU-10s they are now armed with
indigenious Iranian Sattar-1/2/3 laser-guided missiles (a mix of (US) GBU-10
and (French) AS.30L technology), the Noor (an Iranian version of the
160km-range C.802K-2 anti-ship missile, directly comparable in capabilities
to the Harpoon), and R-73/AA-11 Archer air-to-air missiles (the last in
addition to the usual Sparrows)...

Tom Cooper
Co-Author:
Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988:

Very scary, but if there is only 15, I suspect they would be called "turkey
meat" if they challenged F-14s, 15s, 16s or 18s.

You seem well informed -- so, what *do* they have that would be a challenge to
us.?




Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html