9/10/2017 The Tomcat’s First Phoenix Kill – War Is Boring – Medium

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Feb 20 · 7 min read

An IRIAF F-14A as seen from a B747 tanker during in-çight refueling in mid-September 1980. Notable is lack of any other armament but an AIM-54 Phoenix missile
installed under the fuselage. It was only months later that IRIAF engineers adapted AIM-9 Sidewinders and AIM-7 Sparrows to the type. Tom Cooper Collection

The Tomcat’s First Phoenix Kill

Iranian F-14 pilots äred AIM-54s at Iraqi jets in 1980

by TOM COOPER

For much of the last 30 years, there was one air-to-air missile that
captivated professionals and enthusiasts alike — the big, expensive
Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix. The long-range armament of the Grumman
F-14 Tomcat.

It’s generally accepted that the famed missile was only ever used in
anger twice — in 1999 over Iraq, toward the end of its active service
with the U.S. Navy. Although Iran is known to have purchased AIM-

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54s together with a fleet of F-14s in the mid-1970s, legend has it that
Iranians never used any Phoenixes in combat.

As is so often the case, the actual story is entirely different — and

remains largely unknown to the Western public.

In late 1973, Iran — then ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a

close ally of the USA — placed the first of two orders for a total of 80
F-14s and 714 Phoenixes. The first two Tomcats were delivered in
January 1976, and all the others followed over the next two years,
together with about 240 Phoenixes.

By early 1979, around 120 Iranian pilots and slightly fewer than 100
radar-intercept officers, or RIOs, had completed their training on F-
14s. Then the so-called “Islamic Revolution” swept the Shah from
power.

The air force — officially re-designated the Islamic Republic of Iran Air
Force ever since — was essentially grounded for months. This changed
in August 1980, as tensions increased with Iraq.

“We had started to check the F-14 pilots who had not flown in any sort
of capacity for over 18 months back into service once again,” recalled
Maj. Gen. Mohammed-Reza Ataayee, a retired IRIAF F-14-pilot. “We
also brought back a number of ground technical crews into service, so
we could bring back a number of grounded F-14s into combat ready
status after a long layoff.”

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Ali-Reza Ataayee with an F-14. Ali-Reza Ataayee Collection

The technical staff started to get the Tomcats ready and we checked a
number of pilots and they started their combat duties … flying [combat
air patrols] along the border with Iraq.

Initially, the conflict was limited to cross-border skirmishes. Iraq would

bomb our border guards and vice versa, and when our F-4s went for
cross-border sorties, we usually provided top cover for them and that’s
how we in the end we provided refresher training for the majority of our
F-14 pilots.

On Sept. 8, 1980, the IRIAF was ordered to launch its F-4E Phantom
IIs for attacks on Iraqi tanks and artillery attacking Iranian border
posts. One Phantom was shot down by Iraqi ground defenses. The
crew ejected inside Iraq and evaded several parties sent to capture it,
but was not recovered by Iranians until several days later.

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Concerned by the sudden activity of the IRIAF, the Iraqi chief of staff
orderd the Iraqi air force to conduct reconnaissance sorties deep
inside Iran in order to find out if the Iranian army was preparing for a
war. The recon planes included MiG-21Rs of No. 70 Squadron based at
Rashid air base in Baghdad and also Su-22s from No. 44 Squadron at
Firas air base in Mosul.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 left the IRIAF in possession of an

incomplete network of early-warning radar stations. Furthermore, a
number of Iranian defectors revealed secrets of this system to
Baghdad in mid-1980. Therefore, Iraqi aircraft were able to fly deep
into Iranian airspace entirely unobserved.

This photograph appeared in Iranian media on Sept. 15, 1980 and clearly shows the än of a MiG-21 and the semi-burned wreck of an R-3S — a.k.a. AA-2 Atoll — air-to-air
missile. The place where it was taken remains unknown and thus it is also unknown if it depicts the wreckage of Dayekh’s MiG-21R. Farzin Nadimi Collection

On Sept. 9, 1980, it was Ataayee’s turn to fly top cover for another

formation of F-4Es that targeted the Iraqi army’s positions near the
border. “My back-seater was 1st Lt. Sultan Pasha-Pour. Back then, I
was a major and the second Tomcat was piloted by Maj. Shahram
Rostami … The ground radar announced to us one target that was
approaching the border and closing fast, and asked us if it is possible
for us to engage it.”

“At the time the government had given us strict orders to never stray
over the border or engage in cross-border combats, in order to give

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Saddam Hussein no excuse for an invasion. We were to engage only if

they violated our airspace. Then we had the right to engage and
destroy them.”

I told the radar I will head toward TFB.4 [Tactical Fighter Base 4, near
Dezful] to land and refuel. After refueling, we took off from Dezful and I
was immediately alerted that there was an aircraft roughly 50 or so miles
away, in a northern direction.

I saw that this target was coming from direction of Hamedan, meaning
from north to south. I asked the radar are you sure it is a foe and not a
friend. They said stand by so they could check the status of the target, but
after a short delay the radar said, ‘No, this is definitely an enemy.’ For us
it was hard to imagine an Iraqi pilot would be as brazen as to enter our
airspace. Until then, the Iraqis never had the guts to do so.

I told my RIO Pasha-Pour to launch a missile at this target. After a quick

pause I repeated my order. He told me to do it. I told him to do it.
Finally, he pushed the button.

Because I flew F-5s earlier, I was used to seeing the missile going off the
wingtip rails and accelerate really fast. I never fired an AIM-54 before
and did not know what a Phoenix launch actually felt like. Once Pasha-
Pour pushed the button, I could see nothing. I only heard the sound of
something detaching from the belly of my aircraft. I told Pasha-Pour that
I think that, unfortunately, the missile malfunctioned and fell to the
earth.

Thus I inverted my aircraft to see what was going on below and saw the
missile falling away. But then I saw it releasing a smoke trail … only
then did I recall that the launch sequence took several seconds.

I rolled out and got back to checking the radar, and saw the countdown
until the missile would hit. This was counting down — five, four, three,
two, one then zero. And then I saw the target disappear from my radar.
The ground radar called to congratulate — that poor guy nearly fainted
in excitement!’

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Fereydoon-Ali Mazandarani with an IRIAF F-14A in the mid-1980s. Mazandarani actually resigned from the air
force on Sept. 9, 1980 but was requested to return to service due to increasing tensions with Iraq. He çew his
ärst combat air patrol on the next day — with his resignation papers still in his pocket. Fereydoon-Ali
Mazandarani Collection

The IRIAF officially credited Ataayee with a kill of the Sukhoi Su-20M
flown by pilot named Faysal Abdul-Fattah Abdul Rahman. This
conclusion has been confirmed by captured Iraqi documents.

However, Iraq never bought any Su-20Ms and, as of September 1980,

the Iraqi air force’s No. 1 Squadron was still equipped with 16 out of
18 Su-20s Iraq acquired in 1973.

Indeed, none of the Su-20s were operational for most of September

1980, according to an Iraqi air force document entitled “Engine-
Related Problems with Su-20s, 4 September — 24 October 1980” and
dated May 29, 1981. The entire fleet had developed engine-related
problems and was grounded pending investigation by a team of Soviet
experts.

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Finally, no available Iraqi documentation shows a loss on Sept. 9,

1980. According to “Analytical Study of Iraqi Aircraft Attrition During
the Iran-Iraq War,” prepared by the Iraqi air force’s intelligence
directorate in 1992, the first Iraqi loss in the war with Iran was an Su-
22 flown by No. 44 squadron commander Maj. Noubar Abdel-Hamid
Al Hamadani, shot down on Sept. 14, 1980.

Hamadani had led a pair of Sukhois on a visual reconnaissance sortie

inside Iranian airspace. The wingman later reported he came under
small-arms fire, but nothing happened initially. A minute later,
Hamadani’s aircraft “just blew up” without any warning. The pilot
was declared missing in action and was never heard from again.

Despite multiple Iranian claims, the only other aircraft the Iraqi air
force confirmed as lost during the weeks of border skirmishing with
Iran in September 1980 was a MiG-21R from No. 70 Squadron flown
by 1st Lt. Jassim Dayekh. The date and circumstances of this loss
remain unknown, while the area over which he was shot down is
described as “north of Abadan.”

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While the IRIAF F-14 crew certainly had good reason to claim its first
kill on Sept. 9, 1980, currently it remains unknown if Ataayee and
Pasha-Pour really scored the first-ever kill by an AIM-54. It’s possible
that this honor belongs to 1st Lt. Fereydoon-Ali Mazandarani and 1st
Lt. Qassem Soltani, who claimed to have shot down a MiG-23 with an
AIM-54 on Sept. 17, 1980.

This much is certain — the IRIAF’s F-14s were not only operational, but
began using their Phoenix missiles in combat days before Iraq invaded
Iran on Sept. 22, 1980.

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