The U.S. Navy retired the iconic Tomcat on Sep. 22, 2006 and today the F-14 remains in service with IRIAF.

The picture in this post features the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) F-14A Tomcat that crashed yesterday .

According to Scramble Facebook News Magazine, it is now (still unconfirmed) reported that the aircraft involved is F-14A 3-6003. According to the picture of the fatal Tomcat, the airframe is completely destroyed.

(This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2019.)

As we have reported yesterday, one of the few remaining IRIAF F-14A Tomcat fighter jets was involved in a crash at home base Esfahãn-Shahid Beheshti International Airport (Iran).

The IRIAF F-14A from the 8th Tactical Air Base crashed while it was landing. The aircraft reported an emergency to air traffic control during its training flight, subsequently the fighter was approved to make a quick landing at Esfahãn, but the aircraft was not able to hold position and skidded of the runway. Both pilot and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) were forced to eject. They parachuted safely to mother earth.

It is said that the IRIAF only have some twelve to fourteen operational F-14A and F-14AMs left. The IRIAF faces large problems to keep their Tomcats in the air (the AM version is locally modified and equipped with new avionics and multi-function displays in the cockpit, counter measure systems, radar warning receivers and an inertial navigation system).

The U.S. Navy retired the iconic Tomcat on Sep. 22, 2006 and today the F-14 remains in service with IRIAF.

In January 2007, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that sales of spare F-14 parts would be suspended over concerns of the parts ending up in Iran and in Jul. 2007 the remaining U.S. F-14s were shredded to ensure that any parts could not be acquired.

However in Oct. 2010 IRIAF commander stated that his country was overhauling its F-14s and mentioned that Iran-made radar system had been installed on the fighter.

Moreover in the summer of 2010, Iran requested that the U.S. deliver the 80th F-14 it had purchased in 1974, but delivery was denied after the Islamic Revolution.

This article by Dario Leone originally appeared on The Aviation Geek Club in 2019.

Image: Wikimedia