It would be a shame if anything happened to it.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force operated a single Simorgh, a former Iraqi Air Force Adnan. The Adnan AWACS was in turn a modification of a Soviet-built Ilyushin Il-76 transport.
The Simorgh collided with one of the Air Force’s Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighters over the area of the Imam Khomeyni Shrine, southern Tehran. According to eyewitnesses, the crash occurred immediately after the parade. Apparently, no mayday call was issued.
You say it was your only one? Too bad, so sad.
How . . . convenient.
Hell, without proper infrastructure behind it and a world-class air force (in pilots, not just equipment), it wouldn’t do them any good anyway.
I’d be half-shocked if the operators were even properly trained.
Obama should just take out their whole damn Air Force as a favor to Israel when they do their “flyover.” Too bad Michelle has his nuts in a little box next to her pearls.
“Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, a national shrine.”
Now THAT is funny! Talk about adding insult to injury!
Now I wonder how that happened? Accident or ‘other’? If ‘other’, who? Mossad, CIA, how about the Russians (who want to see the Iranians new hardware anyway)…
Does make things easier for the Israelis though. No AWACS makes any sort of coordinated air defense difficult or even impossible.
Scott
I don’t think the F5 is fly by wire, so that makes things a little bit harder… to do, but not impossible. The F5 is not all that rare so one could easily find one to do test and development on… getting onto the airbase cladesinly long enough to install such a system is harder…
I’d vote for Mossad
There were reports in the past that Iran used F-14s as AWACS platforms during the Iran-Iraq war. It is said Iraqi pilots avoided US F-14s during the Gulf War as a reflex because of that. It is unknown if they still can operate their F-14s however.
Their hardware is pretty trashy but they still managed to turn the Iran-Iraq war around with fanaticism and human wave tactics.
Mr. Luigi Vercotti could not be reached for comment….
“Nice set ‘o Revolutionary Guards you got there, gov’ner. Be a shame if someone was to set fire to ’em.”
The AWG-9 radar in the F-14 was a pretty impressive performer in its day, but any kid with a telegraph key and a car battery can jam it now. Much more to the point, the F-14As that Iran have (if indeed they are still able to fly reliably) lack sufficient communications gear for any serious AWACs operations. Having a long range radar is nice, but unless you can actually communicate with the various aircraft you are controlling, you are really just a forward observer for one or two other planes.
As for the Iranian performance in the Iran/Iraq war, their neighbors took note of the persian tactics, and most of them are far, far better prepared for this go-around. As a side point, I rather doubt that the mullahs can count upon fanaticism for this next round…
Midair collisions during fly-bys are not unheard of, as in the case of the collision between the #2 XB-70A prototype and an F-104 back in the 1960s. Malice isn’t required, just human or mechanical error. Seeing as how that F-5E is a 1970s vintage plane (and not fly-by-wire) and they probably have a hard time getting parts, maintenance issues and pilot inexperience are a likely contributor to a collision.
Almost certainly you correct Larry, but the core of this presumes that in fact the AWACS was indeed the victim of a mid-air collision, and not something else. Conspiracies (a mole in air-traffic control, for instance?) aside, an accident does seem to be the best explanation.
Would be neat if it were something else though…
Just Allah’s way of saying “You might want to reconsider your course of action.”
““Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, a national shrine.”
Now THAT is funny! Talk about adding insult to injury!”
I think God is really into irony.