Iranian F-14 flying with 2 SU-27 fighters

Found this photo on another site from the 2012 Bahrain Air Show.
Photo copyright Lt.Col. Oleg Erofeev (Russian Knights AT).

Birds of a feather flock together.

For a second I panicked and thought this was implying an Iranian Flanker purchase. But no, just an airshow photo op

One thing- the radome color on that Turkey has been changed. Could this be indicative of a radome material change and/or a new radar??

That's a great photo,
and you can barely see the tow lines back to the Tomcat!

fisk

fiskerwad wrote:That's a great photo,
and you can barely see the tow lines back to the Tomcat!

fisk

Actually, the Tomcat is pushing the Flankers.

Okay, now let's see the F-14 attempt to perform any sort of moderate energy sustaining turn (Max G turn is just cruel) and watch as the thing flies apart as the thing is likely held together with duct tape and chewing gum applied to all of those structural fatigue cracks that may have formed over the years.

tacf-x wrote:Okay, now let's see the F-14 attempt to perform any sort of moderate energy sustaining turn (Max G turn is just cruel) and watch as the thing flies apart as the thing is likely held together with duct tape and chewing gum applied to all of those structural fatigue cracks that may have formed over the years.

...or watch it perform said turn flawlessly. Just because the UN tries to kill Iran economically doesn't mean our Persian friends are fools. They can, have, and will find ways to keep their theoretically premier A2A asset in working order.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see then. Either way, they aren't going to make a difference in the long run if an invasion of Iran is seriously going to occur.

southernphantom wrote:

tacf-x wrote:Okay, now let's see the F-14 attempt to perform any sort of moderate energy sustaining turn (Max G turn is just cruel) and watch as the thing flies apart as the thing is likely held together with duct tape and chewing gum applied to all of those structural fatigue cracks that may have formed over the years.

...or watch it perform said turn flawlessly. Just because the UN tries to kill Iran economically doesn't mean our Persian friends are fools. They can, have, and will find ways to keep their theoretically premier A2A asset in working order.

Excellent point. Consider how many times we've already confidently predicted their demise. Just because we may not do it a certain way doesn't mean someone else is not willing to. You can do amazing things if you're willing to use a boatload of labor. How they reconstructed all those classified messages when they took over our embassy is instructive.