invertedflyer said:
Departing american technicians disabled many of the Iranian F-14s key avionics components and
recent satellite imagery shows that they are in continued states of disrepair and immobility. As far as new SAMs yeah, that sounds like a pretty decent threat but thats where you come in, right?
I didn't know that you could get you hands on the latest satellite imagery, impressive for a PLC type.........
Like Bunk pointed out, the Iranians have done a remarkable job of keeping a good number of the 79 they had when the Shah fell
27 years ago!! While their kill claims were probably greatly inflated inthe Iran-Iraq war they were no slouches compared to the Iraqis. And a minor point, the technicians did not disable the F-14's themselves but the AIM-54 Phoenix missles we deliverd to arm them. They fixed some of them though, and claimed to have added a few extras
Iran claims to have fitted F-14s with I-Hawk missiles adapted to the air-to-air role http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm .
And while us Prowler bubbas, with some assist from our USAF brethren, have done a fine job at defeating enemy air defense systems the US has yet to face double-digit SAM's in combat (with the exception of MANPAD's). Think about that........