what the IIAF were prepared for

Since 1972 the Shah of Iran had taken interest in buying some new American built hi-tech interceptor aircraft, Iran had taken interest in the General Dynamics F-111 since 1968 but the US turned down this request instead sending some 32 F-4 Phantom II's to Iran in the early 1970's.



In light of air to air combat experience from Vietnam the Grumman Cooperation designed the F-14 Tomcat, a fast and powerful interceptor that could face down nimble Russian MiGs, it also had the large powerful AWG-9 radar that could scan the battlefield for miles and could carry six AIM-54 missiles, these large long range missiles could be fired and reach a speed of Mach 4 before hitting their target from up to 100 miles away.

This incorporated with the AWG-9 radar meant that the F-14 could track 24 different targets and fire 6 missiles at them, all of this under a single airframe, truly the worlds first super fighter.



But after the delivery of the first 20 or so in 1976 the Shah orders another batch bringing the total number of orders up to 80, these made up the bulk of the IIAF air defense that would cover all of Iran, most of the F-14's to be situated at the massive Khatami Air Base built in the desert outside of the city of Esfahan in the centre of Iran.

But why the development of such huge aerial defence logistics in so short a time?

Well Soviet MiGs had performed several overflights of Iran during the 1970's and the Iranians were finding it difficult to cope with their F-4 Phantoms, and intercepting the fast MiG-25 Foxbats (still one of the fastest jets in the world), it became dangerous when an F-4 intercepted and managed to hit the MiG-25 which managed to fly over the northern border into the USSR before crashing.

The Soviets responded by shooting down one of the IIAF EF-4's, not long later the first F-14's begun to arrive.

The IIAF was improving their air defense to be one of the best in the world, the AIM-54 armed F-14 Tomcat proved a real threat to the Soviets compared to the Sparrow armed F-4, over the desert the F-14's trained by shooting down drones from long distances with their new AIM-54 missiles testing the deadly system.



The Shah seemed to think seriously that the Soviets were going to invade, if coordinated properly the IIAF would be a match for even the Soviet Air Force and would be able to keep Irans air space well guarded, the Shah had also ordered the delivery of some 150 F-16 Fighting Falcons about a year before the revolution but that never happened and they were given to Israel instead in 1980.

But that would have been one formidable force if held together properly, the F-16's just add it to a standard that would ensure the Russians had no air superiority and would therefore be unable to launch a ground invasion of northern Iran.

However following the 1979 Iranian revolution the IIAF fell apart when the Americans left along with several pro Shah pilots, those who remained where jailed or tortured and most of the planes couldn't get proper maintenance, the grand IIAF had fallen and was replaced by the IRIAF which still has some former IIAF aircraft in it today. But by 1988 they had been exhausted for resources by fighting the war with Saddam and most of their AIM-54 missiles had lost their shelf life and only 25 Tomcats remained flyable.

But the IRIAF are pushing some more back into repairs and building their own planned replacement for the AIM-54.

It's still a formidable force but its hay day has long gone and its well aged now!