Reddit reviews Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft Book 49)
We found 4 Reddit comments about Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft Book 49). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 4 Reddit comments about Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft Book 49). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Since you seem to be into air warfare, there's little else but older stuff like:
Mind: these three were published in 2002-2004 period, and could all need a great deal of 'overhauls and upgrades'. The publishing of the first one caused a small 'publishing revolution' in Iran in particular, thus there is plenty of new info.
Here are few examples for diverse 'updates':
Much newer, and then providing 'the other side's point of view' would be such like:
For ground warfare, there's meanwhile an entire series suitably titled Iran-Iraq War. This was sold out, but a 2nd edition is due out in early 2019.
Finally, for better understanding of all the possible rumours about (supposed) Iranian acquisitions of Russian weapons (all of which rarely materialize), and the reasons for generally sad condition of the IRIAF in particular (also why diverse projects like F-14AM always stop at 'one prototype only'), see: Iran is Too Much of a Mess to Acquire Russian Weaponry.
Similarly, reasons why at least 'rumours' on specific missile-related projects should be taken seriously, are described in a four-part series of articles starting here: Iran Is Building Air Defenses Against Stealth Aircraft
>... F-14s they never got to fly as well
Where did you get that info from? It's pretty well documented that the F-14 was Iran's frontline fighter for over 40 years and saw a lot of action. As a matter of fact, Iranian Tomcats have shot down more aircraft than the US Navy.
Iran has done some crazy shit to keep the fleet in the air. At first, they bought spare parts on the black market. Then when that route was shut down, they bought them from the CIA (Google the Iran-Contra scandal for details). After that was shut down they kept reverse engineering the equipment. For example, the Iranians stock of AIM-54A missiles started running low in the late 1980's, but they did have lots and lots of MIM-23 HAWK SAMs. So they modified the HAWKs so that they could be carried and fired from the F-14. The same program that integrated the HAWKs also allowed the Tomcat to carry the AGM-65 Maverick air-ground missiles.
Some sources:
If you want to read up on the history of combat aviation in Iran's Air force, I recommend you talk to /u/x_tc_x. Who is he?
He is an Austrian military aviation author and co-author of these books:
1
2
3
4
He is pretty active on reddit and comments on the Syrian Civil war conflict almost everyday.
Edit: I read the 3rd book and while it mostly focuses on the Arab-Israeli wars, it taught me some things that surprised me and fell in place quite nicely given other things that I knew of these wars. So, I definitely recommend all 4 books. I only skimmed through the 2nd and 4th books.
"Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat" by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop is really out of this world.
Unlike the US Navy literature that will tell you about naval fighter aviator culture, the inception of the Tomcat and a few short brushes with combat, this book covers what in my opinion was the Tomcat's finest hour in service. Here we have an aircraft that was considered a maintenance nightmare spend 8 years of intensive combat flying with almost daily air-to-air engagements, operated by an air force under an arms and parts embargo, and yet it excelled to a degree almost unrivalled by any other fighter that engaged in a near-peer war (i.e. not a NATO vs. small country turkey shoot) combining whatever whatever was stockpiled with domestic improvisation and black market parts. It also reveals a lot of cool aspects about joint operations with Phantoms, Tigers and the tankers, and provides a good mix of documents and first-person accounts from pilots, mechanics and so on.