With the Iranian Air Force receiving 79 F-14 Tomcat air superiority fighters from the Untied
States in the 1970s, the first fourth generation combat jet ever to see service and by far
the most capable platform in air to air combat of its time, the fleet of elite fighters was
very soon pressed into service against the invading forces of neighbouring Iraq during
the Iran-Iraq War. Iraq’s Air Force force retained a vast numerical advantage over the
Iranian fleet, and this was compounded by the fact that the majority of Iranian U.S.
made jets were grounded due to a lack of parts following the sharp deterioration of relations
with the Western Bloc a year before the war’s outbreak - a result of the overthrow of the
country’s Pahlavi Dynasty and the coming to power of an Islamic Republican government.
The Iraqi fleet however, comprised largely of downgraded export variants of Soviet second
and third generation fighters and piloted with questionable skill, were no match for
the Iranian F-14 fleet. While only a dozen or so of Iran’s F-14s were flyable at the
war’s outbreak, the Tomcats reportedly downed 160 Iraqi jets in the air while only three
were shot down by Iraqi fighters.
Though Iran’s Tomcats were formidable in an air superiority role, the air war played
a relatively minor role in a conflict closely resembling the European theatre of First World
War - primarily fought by masses of ground troops. One invaluable Iraqi asset which served
in a highly complementary role to its arsenal of Soviet built Scud B ballistic missiles
was its MiG-25 Foxbat fleet - the mainstay of which were bomber rather than interceptor
variants of the elite combat platform. The fastest combat aircraft ever to enter service
to this day, the MiG-25 was all but invulnerable when flying near its peak altitude - as demonstrated
on numerous fronts from the Israeli held Sinai Peninsula to the Indian-Pakistani border.
While Iran’s Tomcats were acquired largely with interception of the MiG-25 jets in mind,
they themselves struggled to down Iraq’s Foxbats despite being perhaps the best suited
asset anywhere in the world for doing so. With bomber variants of the MiG-25, the MiG-25RB,
wreaking havoc on Iranian cities, dropping high payloads with a considerable degree of
prevision from altitudes approaching 21km, Iran sought to acquire a similarly capable
strike asset of its own.
number of sources have disputed how the Iranian Air Force came to modify its Tomcat fleet
for a strike role, with the country claiming it a successful indigenous initiative while
Western analysts have pointed to U.S. assistance from the Iran-Contras scandal, under which
in return for assistance in recovering American hostages in Lebanon and provision of funds
which were funnelled to aid U.S. backed militants in Latin America, the Contras, Iran was provided
with a number of armaments including much needed parts for its F-14 fleet. Bomb racks
used by the Iranian Tomcats bear a close resemblance to U.S. Air Force BRU-34s and BRU-42s - first
used in the mid 1980s at around the same time they started to be employed by Iran. It also
remains a possibility that Iraq acquired these racks through the black market, a key source
of parts for Western weapons systems following the deterioration of relations with the Western
Bloc.
As the war turned further in Iran’s favour from the mid 1980s, and the country invested
heavily in acquiring strike capabilities from North Korea - namely massive 170mm Koksan
artillery guns, an asset without parallel anywhere in the world, and Hwasong-5 ballistic
missiles, the Iranian Air Force also sought to modify its F-14 jets to fulfil a bombing
role. While the Tomcats lacked the high operational altitudes of the F-4 Phantoms, they were faster
and carried a considerably higher payload. More importantly however, the fear they inspired
in Iraq’s Air Force - turning back entire attack formations with their very presence
due to their fearsome reputation - meant that they were far less likely to be intercepted
on course. With the Phantoms lacking sophisticated bomb aiming computers or sensors which seriously
restricted their accuracy in a bomber role, the F-14’s far more powerful computer allowed
the Iranian Air Force to modify the jets with automatic bomb release algorithms. The Tomcat’s
central under fuselage canal further served to reduce the drag effect from large bomb
loads. While far from as capable or survivable as the MiG-25RB, the F-14 could thus be modified
into a formidable bomber.
However they were acquired, the bombing racks were used to modify a number of Tomcats into
highly capable strike fighters - somewhat comparable to the modifications which would
later be carried out on American F-15 Eagle heavy air superiority jets to develop the
F-15E strike fighter.The first strike mission carried out was undertaken by Iranian Air
Force Brigadier General Shahram Rostami, one of very few pilots who has successfully downed
an Iraqi Foxbat, and was carried out in 1985. By this time Iranian forces had largely repelled
the Iraqi invasion, and were beginning a counteroffensive of their own. The strike mission was carried
out from 5th Air Base, and targeted the field headquarters of an Iraqi division near the
front lines. While relatively safe from interception, the Iranian crews’ inexperience in carrying
out strike missions meant that the bombs fell wide off the mark and the mission failed.
The failure prompted further modifications to the Tomcats for future missions.
Iran sough to develop a heavier bomb for its Tomcats, which the Air Force believed would
have more of an impact than several light munitions, and a massive 3,200kg bomb was
thus produced indigenously and deployed by the F-14. The weapon had the destructive potential
of more than three Scud B missiles, and was intended to be a game changer for the front
lines where Iraqi ground forces, ill defended from air attacks, would be vulnerable to destruction
- with the additional affect of disrupting morale. The Iranian Air Force’s commander
in chief. General Abbas Babaei reportedly traveled to a front line observation post
to personally monitor the effect of the new munition. While initially the bomb was thought
to have been a dud, an explosion later occurred far from target. Whether the Iranian Air Force
would later be able to apply the new bombs more effectively remains unknown, but the
deployment of the weapon and the size of the explosion reportedly did have a considerable
psychological impact on Iraqi forces.