Amazing that they've managed to keep them flying all this time. Gotta give serious credit to their mechanics and engineers

When USN retired the F-14 apparently almost everything was destroyed. Airframes, jigs, spare parts, spec sheets, etc gone. All to keep it the Iranians from getting to it. I heard a rumor years ago there was at least one warehouse in Florida running blackmarket Tomcat parts for Iran. It's amazing that they have kept any of them flying this long.

Was outside the formation because RIO was still trying to find the UHF2 breaker

Its quite nice to see the Tomcat still flying, one of the most beautiful aircraft that the US ever made. The Iranians received Russian assistance with engine technology and maintenance, reconfiguring the air frame to fire Russian and Iranian AAMs etc, as well as irans own impressive domestic engineering capabilites.

On the Tomcast, one of the Tomcat test pilots talked about how the wing loading decreased at high G's due to the lifting body. It can go beyond 6.5G if the wings are loaded symmetrically. The 6.5 limit was imposed because the airframe limit was based on the lower limit from asymmetrical loading.

They started building the F-14 in 1969. Iran received theirs in 1976. The fact that any of them, even if it is only a single one, is still flying, is amazing. Can't believe they're at all combat ready though. They'll be trading oil for used Mig29s and Su27s now.

I saw a documentary about an Iranian ace who took the F-14 over the g-limit. He said the Tomcat was out of service for several months, so was he and his rio.

An F-14 tomcat flying along side a SU-35. Crazy. As well upgrade for Iran going from the tomcat to the 35. Huge upgrade matter fact.

It is remarkable they've kept them flying after decades of no support or free supply of parts. Even in their heyday there were notoriously maintenance heavy. If it wasn't leaking hydraulic fluid, you'd run out, was one pilot's quip from the Tomcast series. Whether they represent a combat capable force is an entirely different matter, but it's cool to see them still flying.

the iranian F-14s are equipped with reversed engineered aim-54s called “Fakour-90” if you look it up it looks exactly like a aim-54A.

The estimate when I was still in the Service ten years ago was that of the original 76 delivered they had around 25-ish flyable airframes and a dozen with at least some military capability. Of the other 50-odd, around 12 may have been lost to various causes and the rest scavenged for spares. There remains an active effort to source parts from around the world. The biggest issue was personnel, as almost all air and ground crew who had trained in the US before the revolution feared they would be targeted by the new regime and fled abroad. Those who stayed proved the others right so it took a while to get a new cadre trained up, albeit not to US standards. So crew proficiency, and reduction of force capability due to deficiencies in power plant and avionics support, render them now more of a political asset.

a few years back it was reported that Iran had modified Hawk? SAMs to fit on their 14s because all the AIM-54s were either expended or past their use by date. Another claim from Iran was that they had developed their own long range fully active A-A missile. a side note, when the RAAF retired their F-111s all their TF-30 engines and parts had to be either returned to the US for disposal or destroyed, purely to keep them out of Iranian hands

The Iranian Air Force uses their TomCats primarily as "AWACS-like" functions due to their radar assemblies, vectoring in MiGs. They don't like putting flight-hours on those frames unless they need to, and, without Phoenix or Sparrows, they have a largely support role to other fighter-attack squadrons.

Iran went to war against Iraq with these Tomcats, they survived the battles, and then Iranians upgrade them, and they are still very effective planes !

Tom Cruise Missile taking notes for Top Gun 3, revenge of the Imam Cat!

You have to give serious credit to arms dealers. They known how to find parts.

Guys, next time to a little research first. They have ca. 42 Tomcats flying at the moment, they also modified them (possibly with MFDs etc.), they also managed to replicate the Phoenix missile (calling it Farkour 90). There is no other nation in the world that scored as many Tomcat wins as Iran, they also hold the respective pilot record. The cat is like a nice muscle car with a strong build. Apparently, they also installed avionics with the help of Russia / China.

The “deep intell” with gonky talking about subs cancelling is absolute gold! Believe me! And the constant references and ackernems…. The conversations are what I need It’s hard to find a group that jives like that! Keep it up all 3 your all true inspirations 🙏

They supposedly have been making domestic AIM54 copies. They’ve even adapted HAWK SAMs into AAM for it.

Iranian production is underrated, mark my words

SU-35s are no joke. That beats everything the US has except the F22. Its a 4.5+ strike variant with upgraded radar. All Iran jokes aside, 25 of these makes the Iranian airforce ALOT more potent! Great video btw 👍

My dad worked for Grumman and our brown Ford Country Squire was plastered with Grumman Vinyl project stickers... having the Iranian F-14 sticker on the car was cool right up until right around 1979.

You misspelled TOMCATS!!! in the video description it's spelled: T-O-M-C-A-T-S-!-!-! i can see planes on planehub i come her for the attention to detail and impeccable commitment to proper grammar and punctuation. I also appreciate wombat's resting smirk face.

Amazing aircraft, the tech is not crazy to reproduce part by part. Issue is mass mamufacturing. Iran has amazing pride in their craftmenship.

Iranians have a sentimental attachment to F14 & F4s. It reminds us the good times between US & Iran and the air superiority they gave us during the Iran-Iraq war. These birds must be treated with maximum love and no other country in the world has done so much for them. The F14s cleared our skies from the MIGs the moment they took off. Thank you for the program and stay safe👏

They rather trust the Cold Era plane from the 60s because Tomcats age like wine

Awsome! It was great to see one again in Top Gun - Maverick, albeit CGI.

i saw some photos taken in Iran few weeks ago, there was a pair of tomcats taxiing and they had Phoenixes on the belly! and a pair of IR missiles that looked like Aim-9M, or something with the green tip. Paint flaking off too

The Grumman program for the F-14 was paid for by the Shah of Iran due to Grumman not having the funds to support such a project , so the Shah loaned out the Money which was basically the Tax money of the Iranian population the Iranians had access to the fighter jet programs to a level which was not shared the same wit other middle eastern countries hence Saudi , Kuwait , or Egypt as the Shah of Iran had access to all blueprints of the aircraft as-well which was very unusual behaviour from the US at that time specially in such a Hostile region , IIAF had a-lot of access , fast forward the United States even wanted to Operate Lockheed and Grummans factories after the hefty investments of the Shah of Iran within the States Aerospace industry aswell. Iran was set receive 300 F 16As and 150 F 15s some of the F 16s were delivered for testing “ not combat capable” the rest of the F 16s were diverted to Israel, and other Middle eastern countries as the deal fell apart after the revolution. Surprisingly Almost all records on the F 14 are set by Irans Pilots , no clue if those exact pilots are still alive due to a lot of them coming from the Shahs end as they were all trained within the states. The Iranians can acquire jets as long as they are not American such as China and Pakistans Jf-17 , or India with the Tejas even Turkey could potentially start aswell as their drone industry is growing rapidly , Venezuela sent 2 of their F 16s to Iran. All Tomcats are upgraded to D variant levels , all equipments including HUD displays , radars , even the engine was upgraded heavily overhauling the entire aircraft - surpassing the technology of the F-15C early variants during its time of development by the years to come the R 27s are added with customized R 27 missiles going at MACH 6+ speed/fixed radar ,those things are not a Joke as they are basically considered “HYPERSONIC” F 14 was kept flying with the help of Russia , China , South Africa , and Brazil which sounds kind of surprising, I highly recommend watching Ward Carols videos on the F 14 Tomcat. Also Lemoine got me with the inshala over G part 😂😂😂😂 Best regards ,

Well guys I have news for you. Iranian Tomcats are combat ready and flying. they have designated two air bases for them (Isfahan and Shiraz), and they have upgraded the analog avionic to digital, they have replaced the Pheonix missiles with their own locally made missile that has been tested and works great. they are now overhaling the out of service Tomcats and returning them back to the line. even recently after two years of work, they managed to repair a Tomcat that was badly damaged during the Iran, Iraq war and was parked all these years and bring back to the line. so, expect to see them flying for several years now. They also tested a Tomcat for use as bomber, results was great and the aircraft performed admirably. They are not using them as bombers, but they now have the option. By the way, Iran has been building its own fighter jets for several years now. and recently they added a new trainer jet. so, their Airforce is growing. granted, these planes cannot compete with the fifth-generation planes but, too many mosquitos can bring an elephant down.

They've managed to keep 41 in their arsenal. 40 of those fully mission capable and half mission capable service. 2 of the 41 are modernized F14 dubbed the F14AM Tomcat, and 1 of the 41 is in an Iranian museum

Maybe that Iranian Tomcat has a pair of "Klimov smokers" in it. Vacuum-tube avionics.

Thomas Cruise wasn’t in formation since he was “…heading out to sea”. Seeing Wombat’s reactions leads me to believe the E2 must’ve been a rugged beast from the Ironworks.

We haven't seen Iran put more than 1 of these in the air in years. It seems like they might only have a few that are still airworthy and they only operate them sparingly.

Getting Mystery Science Theater vibes from the first half of this clip.

How they get this museum piece in the air?

1:45😂 Nice one Wombat

They strapped hawk sams to the wings

Whoever was in the back seat, I hope he said, "Watch the birdie!"

Did you guys actually pronouce Iran 'almost' correctly?! I can't believe my ears! lol Kudos 👍🏼

Mover’s voice(folds of honor tournament)….We’re the Island of Misfit Toys’😂

The fact that these F-14s did hard combat service for several years during the Iran Iraq war and they are still flying today is pretty amazing!

Just curious what happened to the original Mfging tooling that was used to build the Tomcat in Bethpage .

It's like Cuba, its a time machine and there's classic 50's cars everywhere!

Wombat: "Grumman" 😂🤣😅 From the Grumman Iron Works. 👍 Ya cain't break 'em. 😁

All of the Sukhoi aircraft's are currently in final stages of refinement to be shipped to Iran as part of effort to bolster Iranian air defenses. Logistical station's are also being built within Iran for maintenance and or modifications. As for the Tomcat, Israel were still selling spare parts to Iran up until the early 90's and they might have been stockpiling or reverse engineering parts to bolster local parts production.

Su-35 is a single-seat fighter. There is very modern avionics.

The specs on the AIM-54 make it seem like it was a very capable missile for its time. I suspect that there are quite a few people in the US who would like to see accurate details of Iranian usage of the AIM-54. At this point we really don't know how good (or not so good) that missile was in actual combat.

Considering the amount of parts they had, it wouldn't be that difficult for a nation as big as Iran to reverse engineer the needed components to keep them flying. They have Russian, Chinese, and NoKo engineers who'd help as well. I imagine they were making AIM-54's like missiles with Russian or Chinese hardware inside, probably something like the R-77 (NATO: AA-12 Adder) hardware, which is in itself an almost exact analogue of the AIM-54 and AIM-120. The Russians also have experience working with slipper pylons like they make for the R-33 (NATO: AA-9 Amos), which is another missile in the category of an AIM-54, which could have tech used to develop Iran a stand-in for their AIM-54.

Snort once asked the Grumman engineers what the max G's were he could pull, and according to him the response was 13 G's. Or so he said... IIRC, once the parts pipeline ran dry, Iran reverse engineered a lot of parts. They also reportedly brought Russia into the game for overhauls and upgrades, but who knows how reliable that particular scuttlebutt is.

Yes, yes, we are making magic happen!

Spec on a screen. "Yeah, that's a Tomcat. See the swept wings." Right... 😅

We had a first class petty officer on the Harry S Truman that was an avionics shop supervisor stealing F-14 and F-18 parts and other equipment and selling them to a foreign country. Were talking classified electronics and software that was kept in securitized containers here. And the fun part is he tried to blame subordinates for it somehow. Even subordinates that had the incredible foresight to transfer way the hell away from his shop before it happened. Not even joking. So THAT'S where the F-14 parts that Iran needs came from!!! This dude had the worst quality rate in the entire fleet too, and often sent gear back out the door without even doing one bit of troubleshooting on it. It cost the lives of two pilots and multi million dollar aircraft. Nothing ever happened to this guy. I don't know what he had on the division heads, but it must have involved photos of sexual contact with children or something. I have more stories if you want.

Iran, long ago, reverse engineered their F-14s; every single part and component down to the tiniest washer. They copied and cloned every part and have facilities to build an entire F-14 from the ground, up. So, spare parts and maintenance is absolutely NOT an issue.

Imagine a Franken F-14 with Russian avionics and R-37Ms. Also new engines

regarding weapons for the IRIAF tomcats, they seem to have reversed engineered the Phoenix and produce it themselves under the name "Fakour 90"

the legend flys again

Where do they even get the parts and legacy components to keep those airborne ... ? Did they reverse engineer the entire aircraft ?

The good old gray goast such a cool looking plane you have to say

He was communicating inverted while taking pictures.

Can they still get parts for those things? Call the boneyard in Arizona ... I think we can make some easy cash!

Thomas Cruise?! Ha love it!!!

I was in a tomcat squadron in the mid 90's and the first thing i was told...if it's not leaking it's broke and me and the wife went to the air muesum in topeka kansas towards the end of last year and they had a tomcat that was flown in 20 years ago and the first thing i noticed when seeing her was the about 20 drip pans sitting under her because she was still leaking fuel and hydraulic fluid 20 years later and i busted up laughing and my wife said what's so funny and i said yep still F'N leaking lol

I think with my knowledge of Iranian tomcats I should comment to dispel some common myths about them. There are about 42 serviceable jets, half flying at any given time and a further 20 basically just for parts. They’re using Vietnam era Aim-9J, Aim-7E-2 and Aim-54A, they tried to mate russian weapons to them in the 90s but it was unsuccessful. They’re maintained and overhauled but the most important detail is they’re not upgraded despite Iranian propaganda claims. They still have TF30 engines. I’ve talked to people there some with hands on knowledge of the tomcats in Irans arsenal.

They are SU 35 Russian Aircraft ecorting Putin all the way to the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

They probably didn't put in that many flight hours I'm guessing? How the heck did they keep flying them that long?

Wow.. F14 still flying???? back inthe 80'

hello from Iran

They go to the Iranian version of Radio Shack....🙄

How is this thing still flying without spare parts?

you guys really dont know much im really amzed why? so im an iranian and where i live Esfahan theres a base for these tomcats at least one of the main bases and i see them flying not as much as other birds like F-5s or phantoms but i recall one time about two months ago saw 2 of these flying in formation heading out of Esfahan now note that these dont usually fly on top of the citiy and the moment i saw them i was out of town in our village we keep these birds runing to this day. obviously we had and still have problems maintaining them or even refurbishing their colors! and if you look closly at their tips, the radar section of Tomcats you see that its color is faded and some cases a little orange. we tried to color them but the formula in the mixture of colors has to be in a way to not block the radar vision we were promped to just put some anti-rust on these tomcats just to stop the rust but yeah they fly but the way its going idk till when? i asked my friend whos an F-5 pilot about parts and he didnt say much but he said elctronic parts are moslty coded in tomcats and you really cant make them work but in terms of engine or less sophisticated parts we keep some birds as only parts and disassemble them and use them on others. you say all the defective pilots like as if we lost 40 of these tomcats due to defected pilots there was only one case in tomcats and the and later accident found him which I'm glad about it 😉a better airframe wont save your life in bad situations and yeat our pilots are faster when its time to select AIM-9L Sidewinder mode (4 January 1989) lybia

you guys are somewhat entertaining

Were the F14s purchased from the U.S? Are Pratt and Whitney still making jet engines that would fit in the Tomcat? 🌏🌲

War Thunder Mixed battles getting wild

F14 tomcat is a greet plane .The reason America stopped producing these planes is to prevent Iran from obtaining parts to keep their tom cats flying.

These are A models if memory serves me right. And they sacrificed most them for parts, got parts on the black market. They've done well to keep a few flying, but they won't last very long against more modern aircraft. If they have any working Phoenix missiles, they could be a problem until they were shot down. But that's a long time for ordinance to sit (mid 70s to now).

Sooo, gotta ask, whats the inside joke on the RIO being called a WIZZO(sp)?

WSO? RIO? Pffft! I'll volunteer to be a Tomcat flight engineer. :p

"... they're chem trailing over there too..." LMAO to the pilot who is in the bottom of the screen when all 3 of you are up front.

Theyre designing a lot of Missiles. and Sam systems. anti ship systems. Something like 2000 different weapons systems

Aledgedly they made their on version of the Phoenix missle by reverse engenieering the ones they had.

Their tomcats still turn over and fly?

Doesnt matter of they over g their tomcat, they could always 3d print more parts in acryllic :')

Why was Putin's escort made up of SU 35's and not the Su-cks 57? You would think he would want to show off his Over-Hyped Su-cks 57. At this point I imagine there aren't any airworthy examples.

Better get Ward Carroll to weigh in on this

Do you think an F14 from the 70ies would stand a chance against more modern fighters like recent versions of F18 or Saab Gripen? Even with a skilled pilot.

Werent they usinng Hawk missiles as makeshift poor man Phoenix?

I feel the Iranian pilots missed an opportunity here. If they were taking photos, they should have done it inverted.

Any competent machine shop can literally produce any matal parts for the f14

The F14 was only, saying Hi👋

Are those really F-14 Tomcats? The wings look fixed, I thought Tomcats have adjustable wing? They look more like F-15 Eagles…

My question is are the iranian pilots any good against anything other than iranian pilot's? How much training and how many bandaids do they have on any of their remaining F14's.

it was documented they built the entire F-14 workshop for Iran in Iran before the Revolution，guess that was in Iranian control explains how it narrowly survived

MIG - 31 ie the jet I'd like to see make a low pass over a 14,000 ft. runway with time and speed traps

Iran has spent about 20 years creating an autarky over there from the ground up with basic scientific research & they are a force to be reckoned with now they are creating some really good kit - not like the good old days in the 1970-80s when they became entirely reliant on the west and then had the rug pulled out from under them after the revolution. There's a reason the USS Bataan got the hell out of the Persian gulf the moment the Gaza war popped off.

They must have been so mad when Tom Cruise took one.

What a flex.

Kind of like the 55 bel airs in Havana

Grumman Tomcats have high per hour maintenance costs. Almost $1.50 per pound. Neglect them, and you have a mess.

F14 test pilot(s) said the Tomcat was a 13g capable airframe. For how long idk but 9g’s no problem. Grumman should have built tanks too…. lol I can already read the comments, she flew like one too. WRONG.