Persian Cats
For many aviation fanatics, the myth of the F14 Tomcat was born in 1988 on the big screen, with a certain Pete “Maverick” Ray Ban Mitchell at the controls. But few people know that the F14 would go down in aviation history not in the hands of American naval aviation pilots, but in defence of a government hostile to Western powers. How could such an advanced aircraft, originally designed to defend US aircraft carriers, would dominate Persian airspace and become the scourge of Iraqi fighters in the 80s?
A tumultuous birth
The latest creation from the famous Grumman design bureau, the F14 was almost never born. For years, Secretary of Defense McNamara had been pushing the F111 program as the mandatory interceptor for all three arms to save money. It took the intervention of the "fighter mafia" and Admiral Tom Connolly to cancel a program completely unsuited to the Navy's needs, against the will of its Secretary of State. Legend has it that the aircraft's christening "Tomcat" is partly a tribute to Connolly, whose decision cost him his career (Tomcat = Tom's Cat). Grumman's challenge was to produce a fighter that was manoeuvrable enough to take on the best Soviet aircraft in dogfights as seen over Vietnam, but also to provide very long-range air defence for American aircraft carriers.
The progress made in the 60s by the United States in miniaturizing electronic components enabled the integration, for the first time in a fighter's airframe, of a very long-range radar system, capable of tracking 24 targets and engaging 6 simultaneously up to 80 nautical miles.
Persian orders
In the 60s, Iran served as a forward base for American reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. Russian Air defence systematically launched interceptors sometimes successfully destroying the wandering plane. But they also responded with their own reconnaissance flights of Mig 25s flying at Mach 2.5 at very high altitudes, which the Iranians were unable to intercept. Moreover, the size and geography of Iran are not conducive to the use of ground-based radar. The Iranian government identified the F111B and then F14 programs, equipped with radar and long-range missiles monitored by AWACS aircraft, as the best solution for an effective air defence system. The letter from the Shah to the Pentagon in 1972, expressing interest in a demonstration of the F14 and F15, could not have come at a better time for Grumman, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
The visit resulted in an order for 80 Tomcats and, above all, 700 Phoenix missiles, and despite a strong legend attributing the decision to an incredible demo flight from the F14 crew, the real reason was the F15 was excellent but was not equipped with comparable long-range weapons system.
Ironically, in 1974 the Iranian bank Melli had to lend Grumman sufficient funds to avoid bankruptcy and continue the program. Without the Shah of Iran, there might never have been a Top Gun movie!
Iran-Iraq war
The Islamic Revolution put an end to deliveries, but the Mullahs already had 79 Tomcats and 284 Phoenixes at their disposal, as well as a huge quantity of spare parts. The Shah's pilots who remained in Iran were hated by the new regime. They were persecuted, and sometimes executed, but the Iraqi invasion soon changed all that.
The Mullahs had no choice but to trust the Shah's elite pilots to stop the Iraqi fighters from bombing Iranian vital POL installations. These pilots ironically owed their lives to the invaders, as they were now dearly needed by a regime that had been torturing them the previous days. Many of them decided to fight to defend their country with the best aircraft available on the planet, the F14 Tomcat, to the great misfortune of a generation of Iraqi pilots.
First kills
Despite initial ramping-up problems after 2 years of inactivity, the pilots and their aircraft quickly established Iranian air superiority over the battlefield. As early as September 1980, 16 Iraqi Mig 21 and Mig 23 fighters were shot down, despite few Tomcats and pilots available. The end of 1980 witnessed extremely intensive fighting, during which 51 Iraqi aircraft were shot down - a third of the 170+ victories attributed to the F14 throughout the conflict.
The superiority of the last of Grumman’s cats during a CAP (Combat Air Patrol mission) was overwhelming:
-Detection
F14 top secret equipment AN-APX-80/81 "combat tree", was built to interrogate Soviet fighters' IFF transmission from several hundred kilometres away. This transponder, supposed to help Iraqi pilots recognize each other and avoid friendly fire, was diverted from its intended use since Vietnam by American technicians to obtain information on the distance, direction and speed of enemy formations. Iranian pilots quickly became experts in its use. When the estimated distance of the enemy flight matched the Phoenix's ideal engagement range (No Escape Zone), the Iranian interceptors switched on their powerful AWG-9 radar to confirm the number of targets and engage the most dangerous one, without giving them enough time to evade.
-Combat
The AWG-9/Phoenix mix, designed to intercept Soviet high-altitude bombers at distances of over 100 km, was used here to intercept packs of low-flying tactical fighter bombers. Engagement distances were greatly reduced, but the F14 could still engage its opponents long before they could defend themselves...
The Iranians flew most of the time with one or two Phoenixes missiles to reduce drag, and 4 Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles for medium and short-range engagement. An Iraqi raid of 6 to 8 fighters was decimated from a distance by the Iranians, who targeted the escort first, sometimes with spectacular results. The huge 500 kg Phoenix missiles flying at Mach 4.4 sometimes detonated in the middle of the fighter formation, and its 50 KG warhead was so powerful that several Iranian pilots shot down multiple targets with a single missile, something unheard of, in aviation history.
On January 7, 1981, after firing a single Phoenix missile from a distance of 50 km at the leader of a formation of 4 Mig 23s, the F14 crew saw the lead Mig vaporized by the direct impact, disappearing from their radar screen, followed swiftly by his two wingmen heading straight into the ground. The 4th Mig 23, damaged by the same missile, turned around and was the only survivor.
One Phoenix shot, 3 kills, one damaged, a very impressive kill ratio!
The bombers, now unprotected, had no choice but to turn back at full speed before the F14s closed in to slaughter them with radar-guided Sparrow or Sidewinder missiles or even 20 mm cannon fire.
A patrol of F14s could thus engage an enemy raid even when vastly outnumbered! Theoretically destroying the escort before it became dangerous, they could then dispatch easily any bombers foolish enough to continue the mission.
Iraki pilots early in the war had no decent missile warning system. They knew nothing until the first missiles impacted their wingmen. And due to the very long range of the Phoenix, there was no way for them to see where the enemy was to fire back. This invisible killer was an enormous psychological weapon. Even the most courageous pilot couldn’t fight what he couldn’t see, the only tactic was for them to wait for the Tomcat to get close or to run.
Phoenix Away
Iraki reactions
The Iraqis, who were losing a significant number of aircraft and pilots in every encounter with Tomcats, tried to obtain more modern equipment from the Soviets, but without success. The Soviets never offered their most modern equipment for export.
In the early '80s, only the Mig 31 recently deployed by the PVO had comparable interception capabilities.
Irak then turned to their French friends who offered their most modern interceptor, the heir to the legendary Mirage III, the brand new Mirage F1. Equipped with a very capable radar and missile system but with one major flaw, its limited 30KM engagement range.
Well-trained Mirage pilots, sometimes managed to take F14s by surprise, thanks to air traffic control guiding them at low altitude below the F14 before zooming up to fire, and thus managing to shoot down at least 4 mighty Tomcats, but at an exorbitant cost. F14s shot down more than 30 Mirage F1s during the war.
MIrage F1 Ready for the hunt, Matra Super 530 F, Magic 2 and Jammer and chaff/ flare dispenser
The Iraqis and their suppliers never had an effective defence against the F14.
Her electronic systems, long-range armament and manoeuvring capabilities were never surpassed. The fighter's reputation was such that detecting an AWG9 radar emission over the front line was enough to cause the cancellation of an Iraqi raid, and many "scarecrow" missions carried out by unarmed Tomcats successfully stopped raids without firing a shot.
Iranian pilots respected the Mig 21 equipped with French Magic missiles for its manoeuvrability in dogfights, the Mig 25 for its speed and the Mirage F1 for its high-performance weapons system, but their Tomcat had no serious predators.
Mirage F1 and Mig 21
Attrition
From 1985 onwards, Iraqi pilots slowly managed to gain air supremacy over the Iranians, receiving more and more modern aircraft to compensate for their losses. At the same time, the embargoed Iranians were down to 20 to 30 Tomcats capable of flying, sometimes with only part of their equipment in working order. But even at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, 15 years after its commissioning, F14 squadrons were still at the top of the food chain.
In February 1988, Major Zandi, Iran's top ace with 9 confirmed and 3 probable kills, found himself in a one-man dogfight against 8 Mirages. He managed to hit 2 of them, before being himself damaged by no less than 4 missiles. He did manage to nurse his F14 across the border for him and his crew member to eject over friendly territory.
Iran's F14s ended the war at the end of their tether, most of them no longer operational.
However, the 20 or so still in flying condition still managed to destroy 50 enemy aircraft in 1987-1988.
According to sources, the Iranians lost less than 20 Tomcats in ten years of conflict, mostly due to engine problems (their main weakness) and only 6 or 7 in aerial combat, for at least 159 confirmed and 34 probable Iraqi aircraft.
The Phoenix missile, long criticized in the USA for its exorbitant cost and for never having shot down a bandit in anger for the US Navy, is said to have shot down at least 78 Iraqi fighters. The Shah's pilots had at their disposal an aircraft directly designed by TOP GUN pilots graduates and Vietnam Mig Killers, equipped with the most advanced combat system on the planet. For 10 years, Iranian F14 crews were the only line of defence against thousands of Iraqi raids in a conflict more intense than Vietnam, and against a far better-equipped enemy. Grumman's iconic fighter became the first true air dominance fighter, whose insolent superiority would only be matched years after the end of the war with the introduction of the F22, SU 35, Rafale and Typhoon.
Anytime baby!
Data source
Iranian F14 in combat Osprey Tom cooper and farzad Bishop
Grumman f14 owners workshop manual Haynes
