Wasn't it one of our F-15's that desintigrated in the air last Friday in Missouri? I remember reading that they grounded the whole fleet of 700
claiming them to be old and unable to withstand sound twice the speed of sound.
Wouldn't it be something if the enemy found a way to desintegrate our aircraft during flight with some electronic signal?
I understand the bulk of the fleet is in Afganistan.
The situation about the F-15's is currently being dissuced here in this same forum. You may find the information helpful as to understanding whats
going on with the 15s www.abovetopsecret.com...
Originally posted by Canada_EH
The problem was never with displayed F-14s it was with equipement that was taken out of the aircraft for storage like avionics that ended up in the
hands of smugglers..
That may be true, my question still stands. What is the DOD afraid of? They have protected the F-14 unlike any other retired fighter jet. Are Iranian
F-14's really that dangerous in an airwar scenario? Something to think about.
Well any possible thing that you can control that may go to a goverment that you don't wan to have it should be controlled in a goverment mind set
right? It announced that the decision was taken "given the current situation in Iran". I don't question why they did it but the question of would
it of mattered if they did get their hands on the spares I'm not sure. The amount of spares that they could of got and the rate at which a airframe
detireates aren't going to keep them in the air forever.
Well the life of the airframes question I got an answer.The original design airframe life for the F-14 was 6,000 hours, but was later extended to
7,200 hours. Now to get a idea the number of hours the IAF uses them in a year and when they rolled off the line. www.fas.org...
Make sure you have seen my edit onto the post about your last Steve. My point now is how much life do the airframe have left. That can be the bigger
issue to if they are even a threat. F-14 160377 was the last F-14 to roll of the line to go to the IIAF. Now it never made it to Iran due to the
revolution but that was in 1978 so I assum around the sametime was when the last one went over. So now my research centers around the idea of how much
the IIAf has used a plane per year and a bench mark would be how much the USN used up of a airframes life in a year.
Very good point Canada, I totally neglected that idea as I've been catching up with this thread, do the F-14's in Iran's inventory even have
sufficient life in them to even launch a viable air campaign against upgraded American F-16's and F-22's?
Or even any other potential enemy Air Force fighters?
Ofcourse the F14 is a very dangerous airplane. It was designed for high speed interceptions with up to 6 phoenix and 2 sidewinder missles. What also
is possible is to say carry 2 phoenix or similair, 2 sidewinders and 4 bombs/missles which way around 450 kg each or 2 of 900 or even maybe 1 of 1800.
The only comparable aircraft is the new mig31 version with ground attack capabillity.
Personally i think it is the most dangerous 4th gen US aircraft if properly maintained or upgraded.
Found a neat power point on corrosion affects on the USN fleet but it also has the average flight hours for the F-14 on it which in comparison to the
F-15 is about 40 hrs less. The F-15 is around 270 hours and the F-14 is 231 hours a year.
link is here found on page 18 of 22. www.sae.org...
(I may be wrong as this number 231 could refer to manhours of M/T work per flight.)
Can anyone confirm this? because it would make sence. The first F-14 entered service in 1972 and then was retired in 2004 at what I assume is the 7200
hr mark. 32 years at 225hrs a year would add up to the 7200 airframe life.
So then closer to the F-15's which isn't that much longer then the F-14's and then top it off with the possible inability to properly train aircrew
on the airframe and the less and less training and the longer and longer they try and keep the aircraft in the air the less "likely" it is to be a
true threat to any attacking force. Not saying the IIAF isn't a threat but the F-14's in that force are less likely for sure.
Again it does come back to the pilot but the pilot can only do what the gov/mil lets him do with the life that the plane has.
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