RE: [OT] Question from the news

>>In SW Asia only US supplied allies use the TOW (Saudi-Arabia, 
>>Kuwait).  Iran has almost 2000 due to Iran-Contra.
>
>They also had a number of F-14s. Not that any one of them is flyable 
>in combat form as they stopped receiving parts shipments way back 
>when.

I read recently (either in Air Forces Monthly or Air International - I
forget which but read both) that the Iranian Airforce still
operationally
flies the F-14's, though they didn't say how many.  Supposedly they've
integrated Soviet/Russian weapons, and manufacture their own spare
parts.
I think I read they were considering reengining the aircraft with
Russian
supplied engines, like the South Africans did with that Mirage they've
been
shopping around with a bigass Russian engine as an upgrade.

Same with the F5's.

Actually, they developed a pretty clever upgrade program for the F5's,
including a cockpit stretch turning single seaters into two seaters.  

They also have put into production reverse-engineered Bell helicopters,
and
have kept their AH-1 Cobras operational.  Those served well during the
Iran-Iraq war (as did the F14's, which had air-to-air combat victories
over
Iraqi aircraft, IIRC).

The Iranians are creating themselves, slowly but surely, a rather
capable
arms industry - unlike most of the other Gulf states, the Iranians seem
to
be determined to have native industry independent of the West or
Russia...

********************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca