Iranian Air Force in Iran-Iraq war
Encyclopedia
Military aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
stationed at 10 air bases
Airbase
An airbase is a military airfield that provides basing and support of military aircraft....
throughout the country. There were modern Chengdu J-7
Chengdu J-7
The Chengdu Jian-7 is a People's Republic of China-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. Though production ceased in 2008 it continues to serve, mostly as an interceptor, in several air forces, including China's.-Design and development:...
s, 18 J-6s
Shenyang J-6
The Shenyang J-6 was the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 'Farmer' fighter aircraft.-Design and development:...
, 79 F-14s
F-14 Tomcat
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental program following the collapse of the F-111B project...
, 209 F-4 Phantom II
F-4 Phantom II
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
s, and 167 F-5s
F-5 Freedom Fighter
The Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter and the F-5E/F Tiger II are part of a family of widely-used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop...
. In theory, Iran’s Air force was more than a match for the Iraqi one.
On paper, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
only possessed 332 combat aircraft
Military aircraft
A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
, consisting mainly of J-7s
Chengdu J-7
The Chengdu Jian-7 is a People's Republic of China-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21. Though production ceased in 2008 it continues to serve, mostly as an interceptor, in several air forces, including China's.-Design and development:...
, J-6s
Shenyang J-6
The Shenyang J-6 was the Chinese-built version of the Soviet MiG-19 'Farmer' fighter aircraft.-Design and development:...
, MiG-17s
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the USSR from 1952 and operated by numerous air forces in many variants. Most MiG-17 variants cannot carry air-to-air missiles, but shot down many aircraft with its cannons...
, MiG-21s
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic jet fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was popularly nicknamed "balalaika", from the aircraft's planform-view resemblance to the Russian stringed musical instrument or ołówek by Polish pilots due to...
, and MiG-23s
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is considered to belong to the Soviet third generation jet fighter category, along with similarly aged Soviet fighters such as the MiG-25 "Foxbat"...
. In addition to a superior air fleet, Iranian pilots were better trained. The Iranian air force adhered to NATO flight training time requirements for combat pilots, whereas at the outbreak of war Iraqi pilots
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
had “limited hours of flying time”.
In spite of these strengths, Iran was unable to translate them into a consequential advantage in the war. Two primary factors have been blamed for this, Iranian political purges of trained Air Force personnel and inability to procure equipment to maintain their aircraft because of sanctions.
Iran–Iraq War
Mirroring the Japanese attackAttack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
preceded his ground invasion of Iran with a surprise air attack, intending to cripple the Iranian Air Force. On September 22, Iraq launched the surprise air assault; hitting six Iranian Air bases, and 4 Army bases. The Iranian military appears to have been wholly unprepared for the attack, as they were unable to marshal an effective air defense. However, having learned from the Six Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
, Iran had built concrete bunker
Bunker
A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
s as protective storage for their combat aircraft. This successfully prevented significant damage to the Iranian air fleet and the Iraqis succeed mainly in cratering a few Iranian runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s.
The Iranian Air Force, despite low morale
Morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
and declining maintenance standards, responded quickly with Operation Kaman 99
Operation Kaman 99
Operation Kaman 99 was an operation launched by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force in retaliation to Iraqi surprise aerial attacks on Iran the day before which marked the beginning of the 8-year-long Iran–Iraq War.-Prelude:...
, bombing a series of Iraqi installations on September 23. By the night of the 23rd more than 140 Iranian Aircraft had completed sortie
Sortie
Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops from a strongpoint. The sortie, whether by one or more aircraft or vessels, usually has a specific mission....
s into Iraqi airspace
Airspace
Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....
. The Iraqis, anticipating such a counter-strike, had evacuated most of their aircraft to other Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
.
The Iranian counterattack
Counterattack
A counterattack is a tactic used in response against an attack. The term originates in military strategy. The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy in attack and the specific objectives are usually to regain lost ground or to destroy attacking enemy units.It is...
is evidence that, despite shake-ups in its command structure, pre-revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
plans for countering an Iraqi attack had been left intact and the pilots were able to execute these plans efficiently. The best evidence for this is that despite the Iranian Air Force's initial ability to maintain an “aerial siege” of Iraq in the first weeks of the war, the number of sorties and mission targets of subsequently fell dramatically.
The reasons for the steep drop-off in the capabilities of the Iranian Air Force had little to do with the Iraqi ability to combat the Iranians, and more to do with the nature of the Iranian Air Force’s hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
, which consisted of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-made items that were no longer available. Iran also lacked plans for an extended war with Iraq. In addition, we can see that the revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
regime's purge
Purge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
s had a great impact. The destruction of the higher echelons of the air force left a planning vacuum that could not be filled. The pilots who reacted on September 23 did so out of loyalty
Loyalty
Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause There are many aspects to...
to their nation and with practiced plans, but as time progressed no more concrete ideas would be forthcoming.
By the end of 1980 the Iranian Air Force had lost 34 airplanes in air-to-air combat
Combat
Combat, or fighting, is a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition, or to terminate the opposition forever, or drive the opposition away from a location where it is not wanted or needed....
. In contrast , it lost only 13 planes in air-to-air combat in 1981, and only 9 in 1982.
The best way to understand this is to take the case of Iran’s 79 F-14s based in Shiraz
Shiraz, Iran
Shiraz is the sixth most populous city in Iran and is the capital of Fars Province, the city's 2009 population was 1,455,073. Shiraz is located in the southwest of Iran on the Roodkhaneye Khoshk seasonal river...
and Isfahan
Isfahan (city)
Isfahan , historically also rendered in English as Ispahan, Sepahan or Hispahan, is the capital of Isfahan Province in Iran, located about 340 km south of Tehran. It has a population of 1,583,609, Iran's third largest city after Tehran and Mashhad...
. In the first three years of the war Iran is estimated to have only lost 3 of these planes. Yet by February 11, 1985 when the entire F-14 squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
did a flyover of Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
(to prove that Iran still had an Air Force) it consisted of only 25 planes. The fate of these planes is connected with a policy that Iran enacted soon after the war began, the directive of "vulturisation" of the planes with mechanical problems to help keep the best planes flying. Iran, cut off from U.S
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sources, was reduced to “scavenging the world’s arms bazaar
Bazaar
A bazaar , Cypriot Greek: pantopoula) is a permanent merchandising area, marketplace, or street of shops where goods and services are exchanged or sold. The term is sometimes also used to refer to the "network of merchants, bankers and craftsmen" who work that area...
s for spares”.
Estimating the number of Iranian aircraft that were either airworthy or flying at any given time is difficult due to a lack of information. The biggest problem plaguing the aircraft was not the Iraqis but a lack of spare parts. The "vulturisation" process reduced the Iranian air force to about 100 planes by the end of 1981. Combat losses can be said to roughly equal those due to the cannibalizing of aircraft if we accept the figure of 90 Iranian planes lost by the end of October 1980. It is estimated that by the spring of 1981, the Iranian Air Force had as few as 25 airworthy F-14s. This number would increase to about 60 as the years passed, as the Iranian government obtained spare parts from clandestine
Clandestine operation
A clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed.The United States Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines "clandestine operation" as "An operation sponsored or conducted by governmental...
American and Israeli sources, and other countries, including South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
and Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
.
The virtual grounding of the Iranian Air Force in late 1980 and early 1981 due to technical problems helps to explain a second dimension
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
of the conduct of the war within Iran’s armed forces. At the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War, many Iranian veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
s volunteered their services and many of those who had deserted
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
their units the previous spring returned, swept up in a wave of national fervor to expel the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
invader. The President of Iran
President of Iran
The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...
, Bani-Sadr
Abolhassan Banisadr
Abulhassan Banisadr is an Iranian politician, economist and human rights activist who served as the first President of Iran from 4 February 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the abolition of the monarchy until his impeachment on 21 June 1981 by the Parliament of Iran...
persuaded Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
to release many of the imprisoned Air Force personnel, mostly urgently needed pilots and technicians. Former senior officers were even recalled as "consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
s". At this time, even Iranians who had left the country began to return in the hopes of helping their country during the conflict. The amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
of a number of needed pilots, and the return of other pilots, helped the Iranian Air Force in the opening days of the war and was instrumental in slowing the Iraqi advance and spreading fear in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
itself.
The increased efficacy of the Iranian Air Force can be seen in some of the more daring raids it engaged in during the last months of 1980 and in the spring of 1981. On the September 30, 1980 Iran bombed, but failed to completely destroy the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
(later destroyed by Israel
Operation Opera
Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....
). It was the first instance of an attack on a nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
and only the third on a nuclear facility in the history of the world. On April 4, 1981 eight Iranian F-4 Phantoms embarked on an attack mission deep into Iraq, refueling airborne from a KC-707 tanker aircraft, and bombing a series of Iraqi air fields around H-3 Al Walid, near the Jordanian border. In 1980 alone, 70 Iraqi planes were defeated in air -to-air combat. The number of Iraqi aircraft destroyed in the same manner in 1981 was reduced to 24, still a significant number for an Air Force able to put only a few dozen planes in the air at any time.
The return of the exiled and imprisoned pilots gave the Iranian Air Force a burst of manpower and fresh crews, but it also led to heightened suspicions by the Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic authorities. Fears of fresh purges were realized over the years as four Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
s and four Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
s who had returned to Iran were later imprisoned and shot by the government in renewed witch-hunt
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
s of those accused of disloyalty. Indeed, the government was not altogether wrong in suspecting that the Air Force was more loyal to the nation then it was to the new regime.
The decline in the capabilities of the Air Force also corresponds to a renewed crackdown and purge of the Air Force in the spring and summer of 1981. The year before, Air Force officers had been involved with the Nojeh Coup
Nojeh Coup
The Nojeh coup was an attempt to overthrow the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran, and the government of Abolhassan Banisadr and Ayatollah Khomeini that occurred on July 11, 1980...
against Khomeini and president Bani-Sadr, and in August 1981 the Air Force helped Bani-Sadr to flee the country. The pilot who flew Bani-Sadr into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
was one of those whom he had helped obtain the release to fight in the war. The Air Force was grounded following the incident, and 200 pilots and their crews were imprisoned. The Islamic regime now realized the Air Force had to be brought totally under its control, and a tribunal of "Mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s" was put in place to authorize every flight. The Islamic authorities had apparently learned this idea from the Soviets
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
who likewise kept political officers
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
within the ranks to sniff out disloyalty.
When pilots were given authorization to fly, they were given “the minimum amount of fuel required for the mission. In addition to low morale, Iranian pilots lacked sufficient flying time and experience due to their being grounded so often and for so long. For this reason, not one of the 81 or more Iranian pilots killed in the Iran–Iraq War was brought down in the summer of 1981. Likewise, not one Iraqi plane was destroyed in air-to-air combat between May 16 and September 1, 1981. To be an Iranian Air Force officer at that time meant facing greater risks from imprisonment or execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
on the ground than from Iraqi missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s and anti-aircraft fire
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
in the air. The Iranian Air Force essentially ceased to function.
Iran’s premier aircraft, the F-14, disappeared from the skies during this time. The Mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
s did everything they could, short of disbanding the Air Force, to ensure that it fell into line and could no longer participate in anti-Khomeini acts. Nevertheless, increased purges and a heightened state of government surveillance
Surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...
pushed pilots to start defecting by 1983, flying their aircraft to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Most Iranian defections during the middle and final stages of the Iran–Iraq War were the result of a joint operation (code-named “Night Harvest”) by the CIA and the Foreign Technology Division of the DoD
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
. Its principal objective was to acquire several US-built Iranian fighter aircraft to find out how the Iranians were maintaining their F-4
F-4 Phantom II
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
s, F-5
F-5 Freedom Fighter
The Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighter and the F-5E/F Tiger II are part of a family of widely-used light supersonic fighter aircraft, designed and built by Northrop...
s, and F-14
F-14 Tomcat
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental program following the collapse of the F-111B project...
s. Notable Iranian defections included:
- In 1983, Iranian defectors flew an F-4E PhantomF-4 Phantom IIThe McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
to Turkey. - In 1984, Iranian defectors flew an F-4E PhantomF-4 Phantom IIThe McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
to Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. - In 1985, Iranian defector (Mehdi Babaie) flew an CH-47 ChinookCH-47 ChinookThe Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...
to Iraq.
Conclusions
The outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War was most likely looked upon as a good testing ground for new Soviet equipment, and by 1982 the Soviets had returned as technicians to Iraq, after withdrawing personnel at the outbreak of war. The Americans, though hostile to the Iranian regime, were also interested in seeing how their F-4, and especially their F-14s, would hold up against Soviet SAMSurface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
systems and MiG
Mikoyan
Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG , or RSK MiG, is a Russian joint stock company. Formerly Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau , then simply Mikoyan, it is a military aircraft design bureau, primarily designing fighter aircraft...
fighters
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
. December 1, the two superpower
Superpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...
s were also certainly monitoring the performance of anti-aircraft systems that each had supplied to the opposing nations. In his military analysis of the Iran–Iraq War, Efraim Karsh
Efraim Karsh
Efraim Karsh is professor and head of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at King's College London, and director of the Philadelphia-based think tank, the Middle East Forum...
writes: “Both Iraq and Iran began the war with impressive air defense systems… despite the large inventories, the air defense systems have been most disappointing in action… Iraq and Iran failed totally to integrate their air defense
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
elements into an overall system.” In the case of Iraq, it is not clear why this was the case, but in the case of Iran, these disappointments rest squarely on the shoulders of the revolutionary regime and its draconian policies against the Air Force.
See also
- History of the Iranian Air ForceHistory of the Iranian Air ForceThe history of the Iranian Air Force can be divided into two phases - before the Islamic Revolution, and after it.-Imperial era: The Imperial Iranian Air Force was a branch of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces and was established by Reza Shah, the Shah of Iran, in 1920. It became operational with...
- Iran–Iraq War (main article)
- Military of IranMilitary of IranThe Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran include the IRIA and the IRGC and the Police Force .These forces total about 545,000 active personnel . All branches of armed forces fall under the command of General Headquarters of Armed Forces...
- Military history of IranMilitary history of IranWith thousands of years of recorded history, and due to an unchanging geographic condition, Iran has had a long, varied, and checkered military culture and history, ranging from triumphant and unchallenged ancient military supremacy affording effective superpower status in its day, to a series of...
- History of IranHistory of IranThe history of Iran has been intertwined with the history of a larger historical region, comprising the area from the Danube River in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and Egypt...
- History of IraqHistory of IraqIraq, known in Classical Antiquity as Mesopotamia, was home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world, with a cultural history of over 10,000 years. hence its common epithet, the Cradle of Civilization. Mesopotamia, as part of the larger Fertile Crescent, was a significant part of the...
- Military aircraftMilitary aircraftA military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
- United States-Iran relationsUnited States-Iran relationsPolitical relations between Iran and the United States began in the mid-to-late 19th century. Initially, while Iran was very wary of British and Russian colonial interests during the Great Game, the United States was seen as a more trustworthy Western power, and the Americans Arthur Millspaugh and...
- Abbas Doran