How/why is that even a concern? Is it that difficult to keep planes in a secure enough area that hostile governments can't get their hands on them? Or do some or all end up being demilitarized and sold, thus making them available through various channels to our adversaries?
F-14 to fly again?
- Thread starter Tikka
- Start date
About 70 of them are in museums - not all museums are equally secure. Some critical parts are easily removed.
The Navy had to go back and remove those critical parts from the airplanes on display.
Since the aircraft type was retired, there was no need to keep spare aircraft in the desert, no need for spare parts, so, most of them that were in storage at AMARC were shredded, including my favorite, Victory 211, BuNo 161134, a block 110 TARPS airplane in which I flew several combat missions.
Here it is on Cat 3, about to launch on a combat mission, in 1991
It happened to have my name on the canopy rail at the time.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
A-6, EA-6B, and E-2C. E-2C was still flying, but being parked as I retired 2 years ago. It's a real pain in the behind for logistics people to scrounge for things. Even a simple flap screwjack can be unavailable.
That whole thing has made huge waves in social media and F-14 nutts are going crazy over it, especially after the clip by Ward Carrol. Some speculate that Jarod Isaacman is behind the act. If that was the case, funding wouldn't be much of an issue I suppose. ....However, I don't want to be the party pooper but Carrols video only talks about the Senate draft, i.e. S.4161.
If anybody cares, read up on H.R.8331 which is the House of Reps counter proposal. The explicit statement of the option of "making one flyable" has been deleted. One could still kind of implicitly read a potential airworthiness into the "...operation in a public static display, an airshow...." ref. clause e/2 (the comma makes all the difference!) but if the text would be kept like that, one would walk on very thin ice in regards to a permission to turn one flyable again. In any case the express statement of possibly making one example airworthy again has been erased. The whole thing is now "in conference", i.e. house and senate have to haggle the matter out between each other but so far it is all but as rosy as some enthusiasts paint it.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th...1-CB3lUwWFjYe0OTMSFE5M3Holkn1NCLS5Kc_rkaf5t1g
BTW: Just two weeks ago an Iranian regime sanctioned propaganda outlet published an at least apparently authentic clip of an Iranian Tomcat landing at an Iranian airfield indicating that indeed some examples might have survived the air raids, however nobody knows for sure as it is always the case with Iranian publications such as this. As much as the IRGC and the regime hate their regular airforce including their F-14s, they sure know how to instrumentalize them as a tool for propaganda.
If there indeed was anything halfway substantial to this, I wonder if that had any impact on teh decision making process regarding the "Maveric Act" bill?!
If anybody cares, read up on H.R.8331 which is the House of Reps counter proposal. The explicit statement of the option of "making one flyable" has been deleted. One could still kind of implicitly read a potential airworthiness into the "...operation in a public static display, an airshow...." ref. clause e/2 (the comma makes all the difference!) but if the text would be kept like that, one would walk on very thin ice in regards to a permission to turn one flyable again. In any case the express statement of possibly making one example airworthy again has been erased. The whole thing is now "in conference", i.e. house and senate have to haggle the matter out between each other but so far it is all but as rosy as some enthusiasts paint it.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th...1-CB3lUwWFjYe0OTMSFE5M3Holkn1NCLS5Kc_rkaf5t1g
BTW: Just two weeks ago an Iranian regime sanctioned propaganda outlet published an at least apparently authentic clip of an Iranian Tomcat landing at an Iranian airfield indicating that indeed some examples might have survived the air raids, however nobody knows for sure as it is always the case with Iranian publications such as this. As much as the IRGC and the regime hate their regular airforce including their F-14s, they sure know how to instrumentalize them as a tool for propaganda.
If there indeed was anything halfway substantial to this, I wonder if that had any impact on teh decision making process regarding the "Maveric Act" bill?!
Iran never received F14s as far as I know. Iran was in the process of buying them when the Shah was overthrown.
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
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Iran bought 80. Took delivery of 79. Shipped one off to Russia when the Shah fell, prompting some mission system and weapon upgrades on our own, since the jet, and its missiles, were compromised.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-14_Tomcat#Operators
Iran flew them with great success in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Part of the reason that we shredded most of the retired Tomcats was to keep Iran from getting spare parts (there are some easily removed high wear items that could be stripped from museums by unscrupulous individuals).
Iranian F-14s were still considered as part of the air threat in the most recent conflict.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Republic_of_Iran_Air_Force#Current_inventory
The F-14 pilot with the most kills is Iranian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalil_Zandi
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
Rumor was that the American contractors (Grumman?) supporting the Iranians supposedly sabotaged the missiles and tried to get a doctored OFP into the birds before they left. I have no documentation of that, just chatter I was told.
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An F-16 looks like ordnance when parked next to a Tomcat. I had no idea how huge that thing is until I got up close to one.
You mean like they sabotaged the equipment that we sold Iran right before the muslims overthrew the shah?
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
Exactly.
I just remembered that when a buddy of mine was in USAF in Big Spring, he trained Iranian pilots. When I visited, he let me fly the simulator. This was in 1975.
Just thought I'd add that irrelevant data point.
Fascinating. I love it. I love learning about this stuff. I used to work for a titanium castings plant (aircraft/spacecraft industry) and loved learning about everything aviation related I could get my hands on. If you have any good reading on the subject I'd be grateful for recommendations!
h\ow much\?
That is a persistent myth that has long been debunked. To the day the Persians highly distrust the Russians and they never forgot how they got srewed over by the Russians several times after WWII. Do not mix up the cooperation out of necessity that the mullahs and the IRGC went into with Russia with the stance that the regular Iranian forces have towards the Russians. There is a deep internal rift between the regular Iranian forces (who despise the Russians) and the regime-alligned forces such as the IRGC or the Basiq militia who use a lot of Russian equipment and essentially run the regime's cooperation with Russia. To the day there has never surfaced any concrete proof that Iran handed over anything in regards to the Tomcat to Russia and the IRIAF vervently rejects any notion of that. I delved into the whole Iranian stuff for the past 20+ years, heck I even managed to visit the country and their F-14s (of which apparently still have some have survived the recent air raids?!!) and the only thing to ever surface with at least a little bit of substance behind it was that Iran gave a non-working AWG-9 to China in 1986 in turn for economic and military aid and it is at least believed that the J-11's radar system loosely bases on the AWG-9 but any notion of F-14 tech going to Russia via the Iranians is at least according to their own stance and to what has become available so far pure bonkers. They defacto never shipped a whole Tomcat to Russia! The aircraft has been way to valuable for them. I tried to keep tabs on as many as I could over the past years and here's the math:
They received 79 (No. H80 (BuNo 160378) remained in the US, was sent to AMARG after the revolution, returned to service in '92 and converted to NF-14A standard and served it's entire remaining service life with NAWC until it's 2nd retirement to the desert. Iran filed a law suit in front of the intl. courts in New York demanding that the Obama admin. was to hand it over. They put the jet into a fenced off area due to litigation status and had it sit there for several years until they moved it back to the other remaining few airframes back in around 2020. Iran won the law suit in 2015 but Obama rather opted for reimbursement in 2 tranches. They paid the Iranians the 1st tranche but after the 2016 elections the Trump admin. refused to pay the 2nd tranche. The airframe was eventually shredded in May/June 2023.)
Iran lost 2 jets before the revolution due to accidents in 1976 and 1977 (BunO 160311 and 160348).
They lost 10 units during the war (3 fell prey to Iraqi Mirage F1 during and ambush called "operation giraffe" in which three Mirage F1 sneaked past two sections of Tomcats at low level while six Iraqi Mig-21s played the decoy for the Iranian Tomcats. The F1s managed to shoot down two of the four Tomcats and damage one severely. The damaged one managed to return to base with the help of the remaining wingman but was a total write off subsequently. Two months later the IRIAF took revenge via an ambush on their own downing apparently 12 Iraqi aircraft in turn. - 6 Tomcats fell prey to Iraqi SAM sites and one was shot down over Iraq during an unsuccessful defection attempt. Due to poor coordination the defecting F-14 aircrew had to linger too long and went out of fuel while also an uninformed Iraqi airforce launched an intercept. They shot the aircraft down while it was already on it's way towards the ground due to empty tanks. The crew was rescued and the remains of the burned out F-14 wreck were displayed in Bagdad at the feet of an Iraqi statue until 2003 when US forces cleaned the site up.
They had 4 losses during the 90s but managed to salvage one jet by literally combining two damaged airframes to a Frankencat.
They had another 4 losses due to accidents between 2002 and 2025 with the last reported loss due to engine malfunction in June 2024.
I'm able to document 58 serials in some sort of working order between 2002 and 2023. Another 2 serials emerged after two decades (apparently being mothballed?!) back in late 2024.
Not a single F-14 went to Russia, at least it is not documented and also rejected / not confirmed by either side.
Israel has reportedly destroyed at least 5 in the 12-day war back in June 2025 (two derelict but genuine airframes at Mehrabat of which many claimed they were wooden decoys but more likely they were stricken derelict units plus at least three apparently operational or at least functional units at Isfahan). There is a good chance they destroyed the other three units that were reportedly at Mehrabat for overhaul at the time but no evidence of that so far. It is also likely that they destroyed more at Isfahan than the three documented units. I had a contact living at Isfahan relatively close to the base and he told me that the IRIAF was way more severely hit than what we got to see over here in the West in the news and Israel reported 43 strike waves at the Isfahan area back in June 2025. So it is likely that they hit more than just the three documented ones. The IRIAF only managed to apparently fly out 4-6 airframes after the 2nd Israeli strike wave. No further confirmation except for a press article by an exiled Iranian journalist from Sep. 2025 on that though.
In March 2026 Israel reported to have destroyed all the remaining Persian F-14s but the only documentation so far has been independent satelite imagery showing two Tomcat airframes at Isfahan being destroyed/severly hit. Just about two weeks ago an Iranian propaganda outlet posted a clip of an Iranian F-14 returning after intercepting drones/missiles. The clip appeared to be new but so far no further confirmation whether authentic or made up propaganda.
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While I appreciate your detailed history, account, and awesome photos, you are relying on publicly available information.
That is not always accurate or complete.
The physical airframe may not have left Iran, but the detailed information most certainly did.
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With all my respect to the amazing info provided, "Shipped one off" semantically translates to "airframe and all".
Detailed information - yep, that one will always make it to the main powers eventually.
I agree - semantically. Please allow me the hyperbole. I dealt the with aftermath.
