re: #65 teleskiguy

Also from the 80’s:

In the 1980s, Iran Outfitted F-14s as Heavy Bombers

But wait, it turns out that the US had a hand in this having happened. The article mislabels Iran Contra as “Irangate”, which it might have been called at the time (I don’t remember, as I was only 9 at the time):

The IRIAF’s self-sufficiency office claimed for years that the program to add bombs to F-14s was a fully domestic project. Now we know that’s not true. During a recent air show at 8th Air Base in Isfahan, the air force displayed an F-14 with a dozen free-fall bombs hanging in its central canal.

The bomb racks were not Iranian, but American BRU-34s and BRU-42s bearing U.S. Air Force markings.

The U.S. Air Force first used such bomb racks during mid-’80s, around the same time Iran started its Tomcat-bomber project. Because there were so few of the racks in existence, it’s highly improbable that the Iranians got them through the black market and without the knowledge of the U.S. Air Force.

At the time, Washington was trying to repair its relations with Iran through secretive arms deliveries. In an affair later dubbed “Irangate,” the U.S. delivered stockpiles of artillery shells and anti-tank weapons to Iran.

The latest information suggests that during the Irangate affair, Washington also delivered to Tehran the equipment necessary to convert F-14s to bombers. This development implies direct military contact between Iran and the U.S., through which American officials understood the immediate strategic needs of the Iranian air force.

Thanks, Ollie!