The Iranian Air Force had more dangerous fighters than any other army in the world
Even Soviet MiG aircraft were inferior to this fighter, writes MWM. But due to the high cost and complexity of its operation, many countries refused to buy it - all except Iran. As a result, his army had no equal in the number of the most dangerous fighters.
Bordering the Soviet Union in the East and the nationalist Arab states close to it in the west, as well as enriched by the rise in oil prices in the 1970s, Iran in that decade became the leading buyer of high-end American and British military equipment. This brought considerable profits to the military industry of Western countries and created a serious threat to the defense of NATO's enemies, because Iran's offensive capabilities have grown significantly. This had large-scale consequences for the Iranian military power, as he acquired a large batch of the most modern aircraft for refueling in the air and so many British Chieftain tanks that he had more of them than even the United Kingdom army. But perhaps the most notable acquisition of Tehran was the F-14 Tomcat heavy fighter. It was the world's first fourth-generation fighter to enter service, and the first of its generation to be exported. Iran has become the only foreign buyer of this car because of its exorbitant cost. The F-14 was the largest and heaviest fighter in the world and remained so for several decades. This provided Iran with a much longer range of combat aircraft, and it also received powerful detection devices and missiles that had enormous combat potential. But the operating costs of the F-14 were so great that no Air Force in the world, except for the Iranian ones, wanted to buy it. Britain considered that the Tomcat was beyond its means, and even the US National Guard aviation, which considered the F-14 the most suitable aircraft to protect the continental part of the country, for financial reasons was forced to adopt the F-15, which was smaller and much cheaper.
Having adopted the F-14, Iran became the second owner of fourth-generation fighters after the US armed forces. The US Navy F-14 appeared in 1974, and the Air Force adopted the F-15 the following year. A few months after that, the first batch of F-14s was delivered to Iran. Advantages over the enemy "Tomcat" gives mainly a complex of detection devices and missiles. This complex provides the pilot with an unsurpassed command of the situation, and only the Soviet MiG-31 interceptor, which entered service in 1981, could compete with the F-14. The AIM-54 Phoenix was the first and for almost 20 years the only homing missile in the world operating on the "shot —forget" principle, which was provided by active radar guidance. This missile had a very powerful warhead, a speed of five Mach and a huge range of 190 kilometers, which made it an unsurpassed weapon. The AIM-54 was not suitable for other aircraft due to its heavy weight, but in any case they did not have powerful enough instruments to use it effectively.
To understand the capabilities of the AIM-54, you should compare it with the AIM-7 missile from the F-15 aircraft. The latter had to be adjusted throughout the flight with the help of an onboard radar, since its own guidance system was not effective enough. Its range was no more than 70 kilometers, that is, almost three times less than that of the AIM-54. 79 purchased F-14s were placed in two parts of the Air Force in Isfahan and Shiraz. Now Tehran had no doubt that the Iranian Air Force had received such a high-class aircraft, which was not in any army in the world, with the exception of the United States, which had an F-14 in the Navy. If the F-15 could not cope with the Soviet Su-27, MiG-31 and even older MiG-25, then the F-14 had no equal until the beginning of the XXI century, especially the version improved in the 1980s and early 1990s for the US Navy. However, this is partly due to the fact that Soviet programs, say, for the development of the MiG-31M, were curtailed in the 1990s.
Iranian F-14s demonstrated their first-class performance during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. In the first hours of the conflict, they became priority targets for Iraqi strikes. Iraqi Tu-16 bombers, not designed for bombing at low altitudes, struck the airfield in Isfahan, where 39 F-14s were based, but could not destroy the runway and did not destroy a single fighter. The long-range Iraqi Tu-22s in the number of four vehicles hit the airbase in Shiraz, where the rest of the Tomcats were located, but they also failed to destroy any Iranian vehicles. On land, the Iraqi army had overwhelming superiority thanks to tanks supplied from the USSR, and in the air, older Iranian F-4 and F-5 fighters lost air battles to Iraqi MiG-21s at the beginning of the war. So the delivery of the F-14 to the troops became a necessary and serious reinforcement. This fighter hit the first target on September 10, 1980, neutralizing an Iraqi Su-22 fighter-bomber with a variable wing sweep with an AIM-54 missile. This came as a surprise to the Iraqi military, who believed that the F-14s had been decommissioned, and therefore they had significant air superiority. Iraq did not have its own fourth-generation fighters and interceptors, and although its high-class MiG-25 combat aircraft later proved that it was quite capable of coping with the F-15 of the American Air Force, all Iraqi aircraft were powerless against the F-14. The first battle between the MiG-25 and F-14 took place on February 15, 1982. Both aircraft were damaged, but were subject to restoration. The unique characteristics of the AIM-54, coupled with detection devices, made the Tomcat the only fighter in the world capable of confidently fighting the MiG-25. Six of them were shot down during that war.
The F-14 required exceptionally careful maintenance, so the number of available aircraft in service was low. Despite this, the Tomcats shot down more Iraqi fighters than all other Iranian assets combined. In aerial combat, they hit about 140 targets. The long flight range allowed the F-14 to accompany the F-4 aircraft and their refueling aircraft when striking deep into Iraqi territory, but they themselves did not need refueling. All Iraqi aircraft, with the exception of the MiG-25, suffered serious losses from it. In air battles, the Soviet MiG-23 and the French F1 Mirage suffered the greatest losses from the F-14. However, the Iraqi MiG-23ML demonstrated the greatest ability to fight the F-14. This is partly due to the fact that the MiG-25 often performed bombing missions.The MiG-23 shot down the F-14 on August 11, 1984, September 2, 1986, and possibly January 17, 1987, although some sources attribute this victory to the MiG-25. In the last months of the war, Iraq used the MiG-25BM in limited quantities, an air defense breakthrough aircraft with electronic and fire suppression of air defense means, having received a reliable opportunity to break through the F—14 battle formations and strike key Iranian targets. This caused serious concern for NATO, since its F-15 and F-4 were much weaker than the new Soviet fighters.
The F-14 remained Iran's most prominent weapon throughout its war with Iraq. Since there were no new purchases, it is still the best fighter in the Iranian Air Force. But despite the modernization, including the replacement of the AIM-54 with more advanced missiles, this aircraft, due to its advanced age, has lost its elite status in the region and in the world. By purchasing the F-14, Iran has become the world's leading aviation power, but recently this halo of glory in the field of fighter aviation has faded. However, Iran compensated for this with new capabilities of domestic air defense systems and drones. In the XXI century, Iran was one of the first in the world to use an aircraft of increased stealth in combat. But it was not a high-class fighter acquired abroad, but an invisible drone. Iran has used such Shahid-191-type drones in Iraq, Syria and Israel. Thus, unmanned aircraft replaced manned aircraft and became the main source of Iran's prestige in the air.
