Iranian Tomcats

First squadron of Iranian Pilots of F14 tomcats of Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (Iranian Revolution) at Shiraz Air Base. 12 September 1979

The Internet is a strange and wonderful place. Who knew that Iran had American F-14 Jet Fighter Aircraft? Not me, and how did they get them anyway? Isn't Iran our arch-enemy? Are arms orders that important that we are selling our supposed enemies military aircraft? It seems that the F-14 is kind of an old airplane. Back in the 1970's, when the Shah was still in charge, and Nixon (!?!) was President, we cooked up a deal to sell them 80 Tomcats along with everything they needed to operate them, including an airbase with dual three mile long runways. The whole shebang was worth $2 billion dollars. Two minutes after we delivered the 79th airplane the Shah was overthrown and we quit talking to Iran.

Iran put the Tomcats to good use in their war with Iraq: "Overall, Tom Cooper claims that Iranian F-14s shot down at least 160 Iraqi aircraft during the Iran-Iraq War, which include 58 MiG-23s, 23 MiG-21s, nine MiG-25s, 33 Dassault Mirage F1s, 23 Su-17s, one Mil Mi-24, five Tu-22s, two MiG-27s, one Dassault Mirage 5, one B-6D, one Aérospatiale Super Frelon, and two unknown aircraft."

On the other hand Tom Cooper (whoever he is) also says: "It is impossible to tabulate, for example, how many air-to-air victories were scored by Iranian F-14s because air force records were repeatedly tampered with during and after the war for political, religious, or even personal reasons.

One of the F-14's big jobs during the Iran-Iraq war was protecting Kharg Island, their main oil export terminal. Iran still has a couple of dozen F-14's that are operational.

Iran Airbases

Tehran is the violet marker near the top, Baghdad is the green marker near the left side, the orange markers are giant air bases in the middle of nowhere, Kharg island is indicated by the red ship icon, and Kish island, marked with a yekkiw sun, is near the bottom. The satellite view does not make the place look at all appealing, does it?

These are US planes over Iraq, but they are F-14's and it is a pretty good show.


Update July 2016 replaced missing photo.
Update June 2017 replaced missing map.