Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat (Combat Aircraft, 49)

Yeah, get it. I just wish it was longer. I love the accounts from the pilots, lots of original pictures, history, everything. I've been a fan of the F-14 since I was a kid. I only wish the DOD hadn't been so stupid to retire it. Iran's combat use of the jet shows how well it can perform, even when outnumber, and the odds stacked against it. So, thanks U.S. NAVY for leaving america without a long range fleet interceptor...The F/A-18 Super Hornet is being asked to do everything, even if it could, the added wear and tear on the pilots, jets and systems mean the jets can't be available to be tankers, EW aircraft, Fleet Defense, and and everything else. SOmething that is pointed out in this book is how the original Iranian pilots chose the F-14 carefully after comparing it to all existing jets, including mock dog fights, and care ful reviews of the technical information. The accounts of those pilots (some of them) are in this book. They recount why they chose the F-14, and why it was far superior to anything else at the time. It makes me personally wonder what might have been if the F-14 had been given the love and upgrades that the F-15 and F-16 got. The jet could be protecting the fleet today if not for politics, the F-35, and some poor policy making.I should also point out that the accounts of the Iranian pilots in this book give insight into how dangerous the Persian Cats are and were. Personally, I wonder how many F-15s, F-16s, and F-35s those Iranian F-14s have sold to Iran's neighbors? Clever marketing if you think about it.

Having read the other reviews about this work,I can understand the skeptism about much of the book.Some valid points were raised about Irainian propaganda- ie.as concerning their defeating their enemies using a tool of the "despised Satan", the USA. However, much of the action taking place is confirmed by different military sources that monitored the airspace during the long Iran-Iraq conflict. Much of the details are still classified, athough bits and pieces filter through about how the Tomcat served the Irainian Air Force. It did very well, along with the F4s and F5s also purchased from us by the Shah during his reign. As the only other country to utilize the Tomcat, Iran was the only one to take it into a full scale war. Their love affair with the Aim 54 Phoenix missle was well noted by the US Navy and the Russian Air Force, which lost a number of Mig 25s to the Phoenix missle althoug they flew at least 70,000 feet up and ran about Mach 3 on recon flights. They found out why the Shah bought the Tomcat in the first place. So whether the book is completly factual or not, it makes a very interesting read of the best fighter the US ever had, and one retired way too soon.

This book is an easy, fun and informative read. I by far learned about how the Iranian's used their Tomcats from this book then from any other source, while the book also makes it clear there is a lot of doubt to be had on this topic when it comes to getting accurate information. While reading this book, I also found myself browsing Google Maps in the areas where the fighting took place.

I really enjoyed reading this book. While this book re-counts only pilot's stories and there are no names or documented evidence, I still feel its an insightful read.I was a teenager (and still an aviation buff) at the height of Iran-Iraq war and the media (military or otherwise) would always give the Iraqi side, with its more modern air force inflicted unlimited harm on Iran's largely grounded jets. This book gives a decent insight into the sort of operations a smaller and cannibalized fleet carried out against the Iraqis. Once released from prison by the Revolutionary Guards, the US-trained pilots were true tacticians in employing their weapons in a way otherwise never done with the Phoenix/AWG-9 till then or since then.I had a bit of skepticism reading into this: what if this was all the Iranian pilots that were interviewed wished they had fought the war vs. what they actually did so take it as half truth.The conclusion of the war does not support my skepticism: despite the embargo on Iran, and very limited new supplies of weapons (other than what they were getting through Israel and other sources at top $), while the Iraqi's essentially had access to replacement aircraft from Soviets, and new F-1s as well as Exocets, the war essentially was a stalemate. Iraqi Air Force, despite its repeated attempts at attacking Kharg Island and supposedly a more modernized and a fresher fleet through the 8 year war, never had true air superiority either over the Gulf or over Iran. If they had, I doubt they would have agreed to a the UN ceasefire and without any gains to show.If you take the skeptic hat off, its impressive to see that if more than half is true, that the Iranians were able to employ combined air operations with tanker and strike aircraft, while providing air cover and AWACS capability through AWG-9.I am sure the CIA and the US Navy was closely seeing the use of the F-14 against Soviet jamming equipment and aircraft to see how its own primary fleet defense fighter would act against a real scenario in a NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict. I hope when that becomes old news , somebody will write about (in our lifetimes) about the learnings the US took into its own tactics and improvements to keep the F-14 ahead of the Soviet tech for another 14-16 years.

If the accounts in this book are true, Maverick should be recast as Iranian…..They really rocked out with this plane. It also helps explain how they were able to keep the plane serviceable throughout the Iran/Iraq war.

Excelente monografía sobre los aviones, pilotos y su uso en el único poseedor del mítico Tomcat amén de los Estados Unidos de América.

I give this five star because I loved the book the book has quite revealing information on how the Iranian kept the Tom gets flying and the passion of the Iranian air force personal interview in the book is amazing

Awesome bookWell done

Ce petit bouquin est un must pour l'amateur de F-14 Tomcat ! Nécessitant une certaine aisance à lire l'anglais, et quelques connaissances de base sur les avions de chasse modernes, il regorge d'informations, obtenues au prix d'un travail de recherche impressionnant mené par les auteurs auprès des acteurs de cette aventure passionnante et méconnue. "Top Gun", "Nimitz: retour vers l'enfer" et Buck Danny ont popularisé les Tomcat de l'US Navy, mais au final, les F-14 américains ont eu assez peu d'occasions de démontrer leurs qualités, et moins encore l'effrayante efficacité du missile AIM-54 Phoenix. Il en va tout autrement des 79 appareils iraniens, qui ont combattu intensivement pendant 8 ans, et dont les résultats éclatants ont été délibérément sous-estimés par les médias et les politiciens du monde entier. Les témoignages recueillis par les auteurs mettent à mal certaines contre-vérités largement répandues, notamment sur Internet: par exemple, qui peut sérieusement croire que les Iraniens auraient laissé deux milliards de dollars de matériel dernier cri croupir dans leurs hangars, faute de pièces aussi basiques que des pneus et des disques de frein ?!? Je n'en dirai pas plus pour ne pas gâter le plaisir des futurs et, je l'espère, nombreux lecteurs de ce captivant ouvrage.

The Iran - Iraq war has often been much misunderstood due to shifting alliances, one sided coverage and erroneous assumptions on the part of ill-informed observers. The authors here manage to lift some of the mystery of how the war was conducted, at least from the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) perspective, and primarily covering the F-14 Tomcat operations. The fact that the Iranian leadership was itself actively involved in obscuring its use of the F-14 certainly did not help in understanding the operational experience with the type prior to this book.In spite of being deprived of quite some of its best officers and pilots, disorganized through the internal purges (the Air Force being seen as most actively supporting the Shah) and hampered by a lack of spare part and training support by the Americans, the IRIAF managed to effectively counter the onslaught of the Iraqi Air Force (IrAF). The Tomcat was the weapon of choice when it came both to dogfighting, as well as air superiority more generally, being by far the most modern aircraft available to the Iranians (or indeed flown in the conflict).In contrast to the book on Iranian F-4 operations ( Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat: 37 (Combat Aircraft) ), much more effort is devoted to the whole purchasing and selection process of the aircraft - Iran being one of the main enablers of Grumman surviving financially, and the F-14 seeing service in the US Navy, as well as with the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF, later renamed to Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force - IRIAF). Much effort is also devoted to explaining how minute the actual differences were between the Iranian and USN versions.The book is also a rare opportunity for a 'Western' reader to get first hand IRIAF pilot and staff accounts of the action, the strengths and weaknesses encountered and also some insight on how crew went from being jailed and tortured as Shah supporters to being brought to the front lines - in essence the Iraqi invasion saving their lives.The operations of / success with the AIM-54A Phoenix missile are covered extensively, too. The combination of the F-14 and the Phoenix enabled Iran to successfully counter both the Soviet Mig-25 reconnaissance overflights, as well as later Iraqi Mig-25 incursions - this being the only successful aircraft in the IRIAF inventory able to do so. The difficulty encountered by both the French and the Russian avionics manufacturers in finding an effective method of jamming the Tomcat's AWS-9 radar, as well as the relative ineffectiveness of most of the Radar Warning Receivers (RWR) used by the Iraqi air force (the Syrena system used by the MiG-25s being an exception) also explains the high success rate.In spite of the book being written from an Iranian point of view, I would commend the authors for remaining largely neutral. Little is said on the political aspects (apart from the occassional mention of bombing of civilian installations) and the Iraqi pilots - even if assessed as being of a lower skill and training level - are generally identified as relatively aggressive and brave in battle (often the reason for their withdrawal from combat being the insufficient remaining fuel and the general lack of air to air refuelling options).The book is also a testament to the investment of both the Imperial Iranian Air Force and the US support over decades, which managed to create a very effective fighting force, with first class planning and execution capabilities, managing to confound an ever stronger opponent even when the events turned the situation increasingly bleak (only towards the very end of the war, were the latest Mirage F-1 batches with the longer range Super-530D missiles able to successfully counter the Tomcats). That this was complemented by an incredible ingenuity of the support and maintenance staff, plenty of black market spare parts acquisitions (more difficult here, as noone apart from the USN operated the type), as well as real dedication and courage of the flying staff is the reason the IRIAF managed to do its bit to halt the Iraqi progress in the war.The book also provides a short section on the CIA efforts, which led to the defection of 4 IRIAF fighters in 1986 (including one Tomcat and three Phantoms), orchestrated with the aim of investigating Iran's ability to maintain thwe more advanced types.On top of providing lots of information on the conduct of the war, first hand accounts of the people involved, a list of all air victories by Tomcat crews (over 130 / 150, depending on the point of view), the book also comes with the customary colour plates and lots of pictures both from both before as well as during the war. You will get everything from air to air refueling, to gun camera reels, reconnaissance and post strike photos, portraits of the protagonists and post mission damage photos of the Tomcats.While some colour plates are covering the post 1990 grey colour scheme and some comments on the improvements in the spare parts situation post 1990 are made, it would be really interesting to read more on the type's utilization in the last 20 or so years, especially since Iran introduced some interesting new types in the meantime that the F-14 could be compared against.It is a big ask to squeeze all of this successfully into 96 pages but the authors managed an excellent job of it. If you are interested in the Middle East of the later part of the 20th century, the Islamic Republic of Iran in its early years, the F-14 Tomcat, early Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile use, or in fact military aviation more generally, the book will be well worth your time. In case you liked it, the authors also covered the most common type in Iranian service - namely the F-4 ( Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat: 37 (Combat Aircraft) ). Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat: 37 (Combat Aircraft)Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat: 37 (Combat Aircraft)