War is complicated. However much Fox News try to dumb it down into a simple ‘goodies vs. baddies’ fight, it is rarely – if ever – the reality.
Take this for example, the American F-14A ‘Tomcat’ fighter, which is flown by the Iranian Air Force. Yup, the very same Iran that the U.S threatens to wipe off the map every six weeks.
Because not very long ago Iran were on the side of the U.S. in the first Gulf War, if not for their comradeship with America more their hatred of Iraq.
Not that Fox News remembers that of course. Anyway, this rather brilliant Republic of Iran Air Force F14-A ‘Persian Tomcat’ comes from regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg (aka Mad Physicist), who has replicated the real Iranian fighter – including its desert camouflage – in stunning realism.
You can head to Ralph’s F-14A album on Flickr to see the full gallery of excellent imagery, plus you can read his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB by clicking here.
Thanks for blogging this, guys, but you’ve got your history a bit mixed up. The Iranians fly Tomcats because, prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution, under the Shah, Imperial Iran was an ally of the United States. So that’s 40 years ago. Post-revolution relations didn’t get off to a good start when the US refused to hand the Shah over to Iran and when Iranian ‘students’ subsequently overran the US embassy in Tehran, keeping US diplomats hostage for more than a year. When the Iraqis got their asses kicked in the 1991 Gulf War, I am sure the Iranians didn’t particularly mind, but they didn’t get directly involved. They did, however, provide sanctuary to the Iraqi Air Force, who flew dozens of their planes to Iran to prevent them from being destroyed on the ground. Iran kept many of them as ‘reparation payments’ when the war was over.
Hello Ralph
Thanks for your commentary. Yes, we’ve over simplified here (ironically), but the Iranian F-14s did fight Iraq in the Iran- Iraq war, claiming dozens of kills over the 8 years of fighting.
After the Revolution and the rise of anti- American sentiment in Iran, the U.S has refused to supply any spare parts to keep Iranian F-14s airworthy, even shredding their own retired aircraft to prevent Iran getting any.
Iran also helped the Iraqi Kurds to fight Iraq from within, although we doubt any F-14s were involved in that…
Thanks again for your info
Kind regards
TLCB Team