Combat aircraft

The remaining three F-14As at Bushehr

were sent back to Isfahan, where they

were grounded for inspection and

overhaul to check for possible technical

reasons for the crash. However, the

Iranian Army Intelligence and

Reconnaissance Command believes the

aircraft was shot down by a US

Navy warship.

New life for old cats

Project ‘Babaiee’ was conceived to

underpin the combat-readiness of the

F-14 fleet, and to inject some much-

needed new avionics and weapons.

Tomcat 3-6049 was selected as the

prototype for the work and arrived at

Mehrabad on December 30, 2008. It

heralded the start of a three-year project

to not only restore the aircraft’s AN/

AWG-9 radar, but also to enable the

carriage of new missiles such as the

Shahin Havapayeh (an air-launched

variant of the Shahin) and the Fakkur 90.

While the IRIAF retains a small number

of overhauled Phoenix missiles, they are

hidden away for wartime use. The

Shahin is essentially an AIM-23C Sedjil

(the air-launched version of the

MIM-23B) with a new radar seeker. The

Fakkur 90 is an AIM-54A equipped with

the guidance system from the Shahin.

In 2008, the IRIAF successfully

test-launched one of these missiles

from Tomcat 3-6054.

It was planned to wire 3-6049 to carry

and launch R-73E infra-red air-to-air

missiles, but the lack of an infra-red

search and track (IRST) system on the

F-14A meant it had to rely on the

AN/AWG-9 radar, which proved a step

too far. There was also discussion about

3-6049 becoming an electronic warfare

platform, equipped with the Sahab

electronic countermeasures pod, but

this too failed to gain traction.

Eventually, the aircraft emerged as an

F-14AM (Modernized) in a new Asia

Minor II splinter camouflage scheme. It

logged its first flight in this form on

January 18, 2012 and was delivered to

the 81st TFS in May 2012. The same

procedure was completed on serials

3-6041, 3-6045, 3-6036 and 3-6046 at

Isfahan from between 2013 and 2016. It

is interesting to note that IACI is only

responsible for airframe and engine

overhauls; anything related to avionics

and armament falls to the experts at

Isfahan. Therefore, all Tomcats that

undergo the overhaul process in Tehran

will emerge with their AN/AWG-9

radars untouched.

Below left: Nine

of the 15 F-14As

that participated

in the Military

Day parade in

2008. Aircraft
      3-6079 retained
      an original nose
      in the Asia Minor
      II scheme and
      was referred
      to as ‘brown-
      nose’ by its
      crews. Following
      overhaul in 2013 it
      received standard
      colors.
      Rahim Sharafi
      Below: The first
      F-14AM (3-6049)
      wears a unique
      three-tone
      splinter Asia
      Minor paint
      scheme.
      Keyvan Tavakkoli

TYPE REPORT // IRANIAN F-14A

48 June 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

44-51 IRIAF F-14 C.indd 48 19/04/2018 15:40