Adios F-14 Tomcat

[stonewall]

McGillicutty,

I never said the F-14 was a good CAS platform. As an observer of Naval Aviation I admire the Tomcat because it did its job well during a time when there the nature of modern air warfare was in transition. It was designed soley to be a fighter, and airplanes designed as single mission fighters are usually really bad CAS platforms.

Just like the F-22.

Raptor hasn't even been in combat yet and you already say it sucks at CAS. Worked with the 1FW much?

 

[Ponchus pilot]

I think they are still flying them in IRAN. I think they have been ugrarded with russian parts.
here are a couple of interesting site. Some are from days gone by.

http://www.iiaf.net/aircraft/jetfighters/F14/f14.html

 

[FlyingSkip]

That's kind of amazing if that statistic is correct---they bought 80 of them almost 40 years ago and they can still fly 60 of them 35 years after we stopped providing any kind of support and/or maintenance?! Man, Iranians may be crazy mofos but they sure do have some serious kick-a** A&Ps!!!!

 

[The_Russian]

The IIAF 'Cats are purdy!

 

[AerroMatt]

Skip, they were bought around 30 years ago, not 40. The Tomcat isn't that old.

What surprised me was this statement in that link: "Some of these parts also seem to have been smuggled into Iran by Israel."

Go figure this statement. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been the natural enemy of Israel since its inception in 1979, and continues to be so to this day. Listen to the current president of Iran making speeches about wiping Israel off the map. That's war talk. Might there be corroborating evidence to this statement on Israel smuggling Tomcat parts to Iran?

It would be amazing if Iran has been able to keep 60 of them airborne in recent years. We better think long and hard about Iran's capabilities in addition to their antipathy to us considering current international tensions. These guys are religious fanatics, and they are technically capable. Given the fact that we have troops in combat on both sides of their country must have them very worried, and I am certain they must be putting agents, arms, and money into both Iraq and Afghanistan to bog us down.

This war won't be over soon. Too bad they have some of our best hardware.

 

[DaveGriffin]

Raptor hasn't even been in combat yet and you already say it sucks at CAS. Worked with the 1FW much?

You're correct MAGNUM!!

It's just speculation on my part, no experience.

But I'd say the fact that they are bragging how the F-22 can carry a few 250 lbs (homo) bombs is a good indication of how good a CAS platform it isn't. It was designed as a fighter, everything else is an afterthought and an inefficient add-on.

You guys didn't take the Zarkman out with a 500 lbs bomb. You used a 2 x 1k curb stomp on the MFer. Even with precision guided ordnance, bigger is better.

 

[FlyingSkip]

Yeah AM, you're right---amazing how tequila makes all them numbers kinda blur together! Even so, it's pretty f***ing amazing if they can field that many airplanes after so long---I remember the guys on my Midshipman cruise in the Med talking about what a great airplane it was but that it was a maintenance pig---and that was with TOTAL support and trained maintenance people! Amazing.

I think you nailed it. The Iranians are an amazing people----they're not Arabic by race, they're Caucasian so it was total shock to the powers-that-be in 1980 that they would fall back into a Muslim revolution. I remember getting drunk with a guy in Paris in the late 1980s who had been a Revolutionary Guard and helped to "protect" the hostages at the embassy in '80-'81. Hewas no dumb-arse even if his politics were a bit skewed, and I still remember him saying (in answer to my naive question of why they hated Americans) "We don't hate Americans---we love Americans. We just hate your government and the things they helped the Shah to do to us. If you knew what your government really was like, you'd hate them too". I've thought about that a time or twenty over the years...

All I know is we'd better get our act straight in Iraq and Afghan becus them boys in Iran are goona be a whole 'nother ball of wax, and the day is coming. F-14s or paper airplanes, they ain't gonna play---and factor in the diesel subs to close off the PG, the other jets and AA missiles, and most importantly the will to fight---I'm glad I'm too old and my son's too young to be in what I see coming.

 

[AerroMatt]

I'm with you 100% Skip. Actually they are Persian, not Caucasian. Not that that makes much difference considering their religious fanaticism. I don't know what their industrial base is, but if they can keep the old 'Cat airborne it gives me pause.

Did my time in the navy too (enlisted). Keep the faith, shipmate.

 

[FmrFreightDog]

nevermind....

 

[Ponchus pilot]

Here are a few other links I found, I dont know what the guy is saying but it looks like war games, you can see the F-14's in them.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=b6068uvJd1U

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5PBQ8265Xm8

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-kgjgFSLXl0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panha_Shabaviz_2-75

Some additional pictures of IRAN:

http://irandefence.net/showthread.php?t=5094