“WHEN WE SELL THIS TYPE OF EQUIPMENT TO ANYONE...why don’t we build in a mechanism whereby we can destroy it???”
in a manner of speaking they did. After the American contractors were evacuated from Iran, it was discovered some of the critical electronics systems no longer functioned properly anymore, so even when the aircraft could fly again, they lacked the sophisticated electronics needed to make them much better than flying targets. With help from American adversaries, the Iranians have been able to rectify many of those problems over many years, but the number of operational F-14 aircraft are strictly limited and are still poor in capabilities in relation to current air superiority fighter aircraft.
in a manner of speaking they did. After the American contractors were evacuated from Iran, it was discovered some of the critical electronics systems no longer functioned properly anymore, so even when the aircraft could fly again, they lacked the sophisticated electronics needed to make them much better than flying targets. With help from American adversaries, the Iranians have been able to rectify many of those problems over many years, but the number of operational F-14 aircraft are strictly limited and are still poor in capabilities in relation to current air superiority fighter aircraft.
That would have been the Hughes Aircraft technicians stationed in Iran.
Hughes built the F-14 Radar which worked with the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix. The radar could track multiple targets and engage six targets simultaneously.
IIRC the Iranian Air Force was the only entity that carried out this six target test - no-one else could afford it...:^)
I worked with some of them on the 80’s.