“How did the Iranians get a F14 Tomcat?”
President Jimmy Carter sold the fleet of F-14 Tomcats to Iran at the request of the Shah. The U.S. Air Force trained much of the pre-1980 Iranian air force. U.S. policy after World War II was to restrain Iran from pursuing hostile territorial claims against the other nations surrounding the Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia and the united Arab Emirates. This policy was coordinated with the Cold War policy to keep the Soviet Union and Communism out of Iran.
It was my understanding from a `Foreign Policy’ political science class during that time period that the US specifically withheld vital spare parts and used their supply as leverage to make sure the country buying the armaments listened carefully to our suggestions and advice.
Of course that may have changed under Peanuts.
“This policy was coordinated with the Cold War policy to keep the Soviet Union and Communism out of Iran.”
Worked well. Islamists took over!
Quotes below are from this article and note it says 1973; Carter did not become president until January 20, 1977. — http://theaviationist.com/2013/02/11/shah-tomcat/
“In fact, 80 F-14s were ordered by the Shah and 79 were effectively delivered. The procurement of the Tomcat to Iran was very important not only for Grumman, which was facing serious cash flow problems due to the difficult development of the aircraft, but also for the future of the fighter itself, since at the time F-14’s program was affected by schedule slippage and cost overruns.
When the Shah announced his intention to replace the old F-4 Phantoms in service with the Imperial Iranian Air Force, it was clear that both the USAF’s new F-15 and the Navy’s F-14 would have had the same opportunity to become Iranian’s main fighter.
So, after briefings held by USAF and Navy personnel in the Shah’s palace in Tehran, Iranian officials decided that it would have been the flight demonstration at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington DC, scheduled in July 1973, to determine which one between the two fighters, would be the best to satisfy the then Imperial Iranian Air Force’s requiremens.
The flight demonstration was scheduled not to exceed 30 minutes from the first take off to the landing of the second aircraft.
The base was closed for that short time in which at the presence of the Shah, the two U.S. fighters had to fly their demonstration: it was decided that the USAF’s F-15, piloted by Irv Burrows (McDonnell Douglas’ test pilot), would have performed first, while Don Evans and Dennis Romano (Grumman’s test crew) with their F-14, would wait their turn after the Eagle.”