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Israeli Air Force destruction of “a number of Iranian F-14s”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it destroyed a number of Iranian F-14 Tomcat fighter jets in strikes at Isfahan airport yesterday.
The iconic Grumman F-14 fighter jets were supplied to Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
According to The Times of Israel, the strikes also hit defense systems that posed a risk to the Israeli Air Force (IAF)’s aircraft.
The destruction of the F-14s comes after the destruction of 16 aircraft used by the IRGC Quds Force at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport during strikes on Friday the military said. Both the strikes are aimed at strengthen Israel’s control of the skies over Iran.
As explained, the IAF claimed the destruction of two IRIAF F-14s during Operation Rising Lion last year, but hit two Tomcats decoy instead.
Noteworthy, as of June 2025 three Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) squadrons( 81st, 82nd, and 83rd Tactical Fighter Squadrons) were operating a nominal total of 22 F-14As. That was: 22 operational aircraft, and other 30+ in storage. 50% of those operational were flyable and used for training; the other 50% were fully mission capable.
All IRIAF F-14As were based at TFB.8, outside Esfahan. Some Tomcats could also be seen at TFB.1, in Tehran, when they were there for overhauls at the Iranian Aircraft Industries (IACI; constructed by Northrop in 1977-1978).
As for their weaponry: IRIAF F-14s are principally armed with Fatter (a local overhaul and upgrade of the AIM-9J Sidewinder). FMC-jets can also be armed with AIM -7E-2 Sparrows (SARH), AIM-23C Sejjil (air-launched variant of MIM-23B I-HAWK, including some equipped with ARH), and Fakkur-90 (overhaul and upgrade of the venerable AIM-54A Phoenix).
F-14AM
As we already explained, in 1973-1974, Iran ordered 80 Tomcats. 79 were delivered by early 1978: one was kept in the USA for further testing and never delivered. Originally, the fleet was organised into four squadrons: two home-based at the TFB.7 (Shiraz) and two at the TFB.8 (Esfahan).
Some 65 have survived the war with Iraq (fought 1980-1988): no, not ‘all the others were shot down’. From memory:
- 2 were lost in pre-war accidents;
- 6 were shot down in combat;
- 1 was shot down while its pilot was defecting to Iraq;
- 2 were shot down by own air defences, and
- 3 were lost in different other accidents.
That left a fleet of 65 as of 1988. Initially, only a handful of these was operational: the situation improved in 2008-2012, when 60+ were overhauled at the IACI facility at Mehrabad (TFB.1), in Tehran (north-western ‘corner’ of that base). One jet (3-6049) was upgraded to the F-14AM standard, but remained the only one. Meanwhile: 4 F-14s were written off in different accidents between 1992 and 2022.
The last known action
For most of the mid-2010s, some 40-44 were kept in operational condition.
Ever since, their state deteriorated’: essentially, between 2012 and 2024, the IRGC was spending so much for ‘saving private Bashar’ in Syria, that there was no money for ‘saving IRIAF’. Thus, only some 12 Tomcats were operated on average: half of these in FMC condition, the others for training purposes. The rest was stored.
As we reported las year, the last known ‘action’ by IRIAF’s F-14s took place on Mar. 18, 2025, when a pair of them forced an MQ-4C reconnaissance UAV of the USA away from the Bushehr area.
Photo credit: Morteza Salehi tasnimnews.ir via Wikipedia
