"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...

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.

Sounds interesting. Sorry for my ignorance: what exactly is the AAD-5? An
IRST?

Namely, I've always been told that the IIAF was never very much interested
in IRST-systems, and that this was the reason they haven't purchased any for
their F-14s either.

What I've heard is that in 1978, in the Project Peace Enforcer, some of
their F-4Ds were modified to get the IRST housing, but that this contained
the ALR-17 basic countermeasure warning receiver, and the APG-26 SAM-launch
detection system. I don't know who run this upgrade (i.e. USAF, USN, McD or
somebody else), but four Iranian F-4Ds should've been modified that way
before the revolution (in February 1979), and they've also got additonal
kits to upgrade six other Phantoms, plus a three-year spare support packages
for them. I know they used such Ds to lead their strike-packages deep into
Iraq with immense success.

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.

Surely, in air-to-air they are dead meat, but I consider them still potent
platforms in the anti-ship role - at least for local circumstances. Namely,
one must bear in mind that the IRIAF is still flying also more than 50
F-4Es, which are modified with similar weapons like the F-4Ds, so there is a
large number of platforms each of which can carry two C.802s. The testing of
the C.802 in Iran was very rigorous, and proved that the weapon has a
capability comparable to the AGM-84 Harpoon. Of course, in the case of any
kind of serious action their eventual capability would heavily depend on the
capability of the IRIAF to supply them with any kind of proper targeting
info in the first place....

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

Their most potent fighters remain F-14s - that are not only still very much
operational but meanwhile also armed with some kind of a reverse-engineered
AIM-54s (I guess we'll get some uproar from specific people on this NG
regarding this, but I can't help), and the R-73/AA-11s too. Of course, one
can argue a lot about the capabilities of current IRIAF pilots when compared
to their potential USAF/USN opponents, or about the whole air combat system
of the US military, but the fact is that the AIM-54 remains longer-ranged in
comparission to the AIM-120, so - at least in theory - there is always an
unknown factor there...

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