Not to sound like an F-22 cheerleader but I thought this was interesting. . .

"Alistair Gunn" wrote in message
. ..
Tom Cooper twisted the electrons to say:
neither service has ever encountered anything like IRIAF F-14s, armed
with AIM-54s in combat

Just how many of the 79 Tomcats and 284 Pheonixs supplied to the Iranians
are still servicable though?

Of course: none. You know, ignoring potential threats, talking and -
foremost - guessing and wishing them away functions at best: the US history
confirms this beyond any doubt - and in quite some lenght.

Most people seemed pretty sure it was down
to single figures (and possibly even low single figures), however there
was that fly by of 25 Tomcats over Teheran on 11/02/85. (Of course, how
many of them where fully operational[1] is something I doubt we know!)

How should I know? You were so kind to explain that I'm twisting electrons,
so I obviously can't answer your question without doing the same again.

I suggest you to ask Al instead: he'll confirm you that I'm not qualified to
answer any questions at all - not to talk about such stuff - and then he'll
explain you how many F-14s are there in Iran.

There also seems to be conflicting reports around as to whether the
Pheonix capability was sabotaged around about the time of the revolution
(either by departing Grumman technicians, pro-Western Iranian technicans
or even by Iranian revolutionaries who felt the Air Force was "too
western") ...

Of course: you know, while being confinned to their living spaces in the
days while waiting some plane to fly them out of Iran for something as
laughable as threats for their life, in the winter and spring of 1979, the
US contract personnel (of course, especially "Grumman technicians"!), CIA
agents etc. - you know: everybody who wanted - could walk around the IIAF
airbases at free, and sabotage whatever they wanted to sabotage. And so they
had all the time of the world and plenty of opportunities to sabotage no
less but 77 F-14s and something like 260 remaining AIM-54s distributed on
three different airfields and (in the case of the AIM-54s) even in
underground facilities. Of course, it's a little bit funny (if not outright
silly) they sabotaged them only so that they could not use AIM-54s, even if
the AWG-9s remained intact and functional so that all the "experts" could
later report that Iranians use their F-14s as "mini-AWACS"....But, heh, who
cares about this being logical or not?

Oh, and the wolf ate Little Red Riddinghood. True story! (I've seen it on
TV)

[1] Mainly meaning, with a working AWG-9 as opposed to something with the
capability of the "Blue Circle" of the early Tornado ADV days ...

Clear stuff: how can one expect the Mullahs to know what to do with that
large chunk of titanium and other metals that the Kafirs in the West call
"F-14" (spelling?) - or something like that?

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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