Slightly over a year later, the U.S. Congress actually canceled the entire F-14 project — only for Tehran to loan Grumman the money to produce the 80 F-14s it wanted.
A startled Congress decided to continue financing the project for the U.S. Navy. Yes, we have Iran to thank for Top Gun.
Not a confirmed kill. VF-41 still holds the distinction.
IIRC the first combat flight, though no air combat happened, was to fly air support and top cover for the evacuation of the Saigon Embassy.
Thread Bump.
I also heard that Iran was successful at using the AIM-54 Phoenix. However, they did run out of them sometime in 1987.
No kills were ever confirmed with a Phoenix. There is a lot of criticism of the missile. IMHO the Phoenix was meant to kill TU-95s and TU-16s, not a fighter.