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On April 9, 1972, Iraq and the Soviet Union signed an historic agreement. The USSR committed to arming the Arab republic with the latest weaponry. In return for sending Baghdad guns, tanks and jet fighters, Moscow got just one thing — influence ... in a region that held most of the world's accessible oil.
[...] In neighboring Iran, news of Iraq's alliance with the Soviets exploded like a bomb.[...] The administration of U.S. president Richard Nixon was all too eager to grant the shah's wish in exchange for Iran's help balancing a rising Soviet Union. Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger visited Tehran in May 1972 — and promptly offered the shah a "blank check." Any weapons the king wanted and could pay for, he would get — regardless of the Pentagon's own reservations and the State Department's stringent export policies.
[...] That's how, starting in the mid-1970s, Iran became the only country besides the United States to operate arguably the most powerful interceptor jet ever built — the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a swing-wing carrier fighter packing a sophisticated radar and long-range AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles.[...]Today Iran's 40 or so surviving F-14s remain some of the best fighters in the Middle East. And since the U.S. Navy retired its last Tomcats in 2006, the ayatollah's Tomcats are the only active Tomcats left in the world.
[...] The F-14 was a product of failure. In the 1960s, the Pentagon hoped to replace thousands of fighters in the U.S. Air Force and Navy with a single design capable of ground attack and air-to-air combat. The result was the General Dynamics F-111 — a two-person, twin-engine marvel of high technology that, in time, became an excellent long-range bomber in Air Force service.
[...] But as a naval fighter, the F-111 was a disaster. [...]In 1968, the Defense Department halted work on the F-111B. Scrambling for a replacement, Grumman took the swing-wing concept, TF-30 engines, AWG-9 radar and long-range AIM-54 missile from the F-111B design and packed them into a smaller, lighter, simpler airframe.
[...] Voila — the F-14.
TFA goes on in some depth both about the historical importance of the F-14 as it flew nearly 50 years ago, as well as the challenges Iran has faced in creating an entirely new supply chain, and eventually new upgrades, to keep a fleet of dedicated interceptors from the last century in service.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @05:29AM (1 child)
Perhaps you should re-read the submission and its linked article. They are also not flying them off aircraft carriers.
We pretty much tripped over ourselves to sell them in the first place. Now we spend decent amount of time and money making sure they can not fix them. As per the article and legend.
They were decent enough aircraft *for their time*. They have been pretty much been superseded in every way. Including the most important way. Making sure our aircraft companies make boatloads of tax payer money.
I would considering shredding the existing remaining fleet instead of leaving them to sit in the desert sun fairly extraordinary lengths. *very* few of our planes we do that with. Even the 'crappy' f111, f4s, and f18s. There are fleets of them in the desert sun waiting for 'maybe we will use them'.
It had weight issues, and landing gear issues
The f18 and its sister plane the f16 were the f35 of their day. Clunky and bug ridden until years of upgrades and fixes made them worth using. The F-14 was no exception.
Bomb/Missiles had to be mounted inboard of the pivot point.
The f-14 was basically designed around delivering the AIM-54 missile and decent dog fighting capabilities. Thats it. A general one size fits all plane that they have been trying to come up with for years (and still have not) The AIM-54 was a lesson from the Vietnam war where the armed forces no longer wanted to dog fight. They wanted over the horizon shots basically blow them up before they even see you. It was an interesting strategy that we use even today.
The f-18 made a much better air craft carrier plan due to its smaller size and lighter weight and shorter range missile platforms. But as you pointed out the f-14s were not exactly good planes for being near the water. They were however decent air base strike craft which Iran uses them for. The MIGs however eventually outstripped them and the F-15/F-16/F-18 filled in that gap.
Iran retired most of them
If you read the article you will realize they have about half of them still flying. Up from the dozen or so they had about 20 years ago. They are still formidable craft. You should not dismiss it out of hand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 10 2018, @06:02AM
Thank goodiness that the USofA has the F-35, designed to go head to head and toe to toe and penis to penis, with a Soviet MiG! Problem, a F-14 could kick the F-35's ass. Even if, or perhaps especially if, Tome Cruz was flying it. Don't get me started on the "pilot-killer" other US plane.