Re: KAL007 Coldwar Mystery

Pat Flannery <flanner@daktel.com> wrote:

:
:
:Fred J. McCall wrote:
:
:>:Key words: "F-14A configured like the ones we sold to the Iranians"
:>:The Iranians could have modified it. I've never seen a photo of one, but
:>:the Iranians were supposed to have modified their F-14s to carry Hawk
:>:SAMs in an air to air mode in place of the Phoenix missiles.
:>
:>Which didn't work for shit, by the way. The AWG-9 in no way gives
:>guidance to HAWK.
:>
:>:If they could pull that stunt off,
:>
:>They couldn't.
:>
:>:hanging bombs on it would be a piece
:>:of cake by comparison.
:>
:>And hitting anything with them without ANY kind of air-to-ground
:>aiming system would take a bloody miracle!
:>
:>There's much more to strike warfare than just hanging ordnance on the
:>airplane.
:
:This is almost cruel to do, but look:

Not cruel at all. See your own comment, below.

:http://www.afwing.com/gallery/iran/7.jpg
:Here's one in flight with a Hawk on it:
:http://www.afwing.com/gallery/iran/6.jpg
:I assume they modified the Hawk's homing system so that it worked on the
:AWG-9's frequency as a giant SARH missile.

The one right here ...

:According to reports though the plan didn't pan out- although the range
:from that missile-radar combo would have been impressive, though
:probably not up to Phoenix standard.
:In exchange for getting to go over the F-14s and the some of the 284
:simplified Phoenix missiles we supplied Iran with the Soviets helped to
:keep them in service for the Iranians:
:http://www.vectorsite.net/avtomcat.html
:As to whether they ever got bombs on them is an open question, but they
:did have Standard ARMs for their F-4s:
:http://www.afwing.com/gallery/iran/8.jpg
:And unlike a bomb, that would self home if launched at a naval vessel.
:If you want to see just how inventive they could get with their aircraft
:mods, feast your eyes on a Northrop F-5F converted into a poor man's
:F-18: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAMI_Azarakhsh
:With a pair of MiG-29 engines shoehorned into it.
:Then there's the Iranian stealth fighter:
:http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/shafaq.htm

"According to reports though the plan didn't pan out."

In other words, they couldn't bloody do it! Now, see my remark above
in response to your original comment about them putting Hawk on F-14s:

:>:If they could pull that stunt off,
:>
:>They couldn't.

And you agree, above. I think we're done here.

Again, there's a hell of a lot more to strike warfare than just
hanging ordnance on the airplane. They could hang all the bombs they
wanted on an F-14A in export trim - they just couldn't hit a target
with them.

In other words, about all an F-14A could have done to the Vincennes
was a gun run with the 20mm in a 'spray and pray' pass.

Sorry to be so cruel....

-- 
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar
 territory."
                                      --G. Behn