COMMENTS:
Voted : Iran
Just a guess here.
Voted : Mexico
mexico?
Voted : Iran
I'll pick the one that seems the most unlikely
must be left overs from the days of the Shah, but where are they getting their spare parts?
In January of 2007, the US stopped the sale of F-14 parts with concerns that they would end up in Iran. This should have been obvious, considering that there are only two countries in the world that have flown the F-14 in operational services, the US, and Iran.
The F-14's were sold to Iran during the 1970s, when the Soviets were flying into Iranian air space and the government under the Shah wanted to do something about that.
As foolish as this all is, in terms of Iran getting F-14s in the first place, it's not a partisan bit of ignorance. The planes themselves were sold to Iran under President Carter, but parts were readily available to Iran either in the open for some time or by 'public' sale of the parts to those who either represented Iran in secret or turned around and sold the parts to Iran for a profit. This went on until January of 2007 when the Defense Department wised up and stopped the sale of any parts from the F-14s.
The remaining F-14s are in the 'Boneyard' in Arizona, where saddly, the "Top Gun" aircraft are all being dismantled and the parts being shredded in order to, as the official word goes "...are currently being disabled by being shredded to prevent parts from being acquired by hostile states."
This sort of made me chuckle, considering that there is only one hostile state with the want and need for these parts, they might as well have just said 'Iran'.
But, as was said, Iran is VERY aggressive in their pursuit of these parts, they have the money (oil) to pay nearly any amount to keep their remaining F-14s operational. Considering Iran's continual saber rattling, the destruction of the remaining F-14s, as sad as it is to an aviation buff like myself, is a necessary precaution.,
^ why care about antiquated fighthers? the f-16 and f-22 raptor are better. who cares if iran has some lame-ass f-14's. wow, a realy threat.
The F-16 isn't really that much better than the F-14, however, that's if you compare the American versions to one another. I have no idea just what condition the Iranian F-14's are in, considering they have had no new U.S. upgrades in 30 years.
Voted : Iran
Isnt it these guys?? Iran right?
Bush only stopped selling them parts in 2007?? its a bit hypocritical isnt it?? him swearing and effing and blinding at Europe selling all its latest gear to China when he was doing that. Still...Iran eh...bloody hell..i only suggested it cos i thought no way he'd sell them stuff...it was wild guess haha.
"latest gear"?? Uhm, the F-14 is some 25 years old, I'd hardly call that the latest gear, also, we weren't selling Iran parts, other countries who purchased the parts were, so that's misleading to say that. We merely suspended ALL sales of parts in 2007 to make sure they don't end up in Iranian hands via a middleman.
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