offline
- nelsa
- Super građanin
- Pridružio: 21 Sep 2011
- Poruke: 1118
|
Iranci,inače u 2009 godini je pokrenuta i treća modernizacija F-4 u Iranu i remont postoječi aviona koji nisu bili operativni,interesantno je da su vračeni i neki skoro totalno uništeni u ratu s Irakom, vraćen je i jedan koji je bio prepolovljen za vrijeme bombardovanja.
Iran was only the second country to receive the Phantom, right after the UK. The first 16 F-4Ds were ordered in July 1967, followed by 16 more, and deliveries commenced in September 1968. By 1973 Iran ordered also 177 F-4Es and 16 RF-4Es, all of which were delivered by 1977, together with a considerable number of "white-tail" or "Unknown Iranians" RF-4Es, supplied directly from USAF stocks as replacements for examples lost over the USSR during a joint (but clandestine) US-Iranian reconnaissance operations. Also, a number of F-4Es was leased to Iran by the USAF in order to ease the initial re-qualification of the crews. Most of these were returned to the USA, but at least two examples were not. Consequently, Iran received at least 227 Phantoms, but more likely around 240. And additional order for 31 F-4Es and 16 RF-4Es was placed, and aircraft partially built, but never completed.
By 1975 the surviving F-4Ds were re-serialled 3-665 thru 3-691 (although, it must be mentioned that it is known that there was also an F-4E with the serial 3-668, which would therefore conflict with an F-4D with the same serial), but already in January 1976 a new serialling system was introduced according to which the serials consisted of a single prefix and a sufix of four digits. In the frame of this re-serialling, remaining Iranian F-4Ds were re-serialled 3-6697 thru 3-6725 or 3-6726. While the F-4D 67-14869 is confirmed as being kept the first in the sequence, and wearing the serial 3-6697 until today, however, the remaining aircraft were not serialled in this sequence any more: on the contrary, during the 1980s all the surviving F-4Ds were re-serialled at least two times, causing a considerable confusion even between the crews, and making it almost impossible to track them any more.
These Phantoms were already AGM-65 Maverick compatible, but they were delivered without the LES (leading edge slats) for improved maneuverability: these were only added at a later stage, as they went through general overhaul.
Operation Peace Roll III
The third batch of F-4Es for Iran was ordered in 1971. Delivered was a total of 73 aircraft, with US serials 71-1094 thru 71-1166, and 73-1519 thru 73-1554. These aircraft have already got the so-called Mod.556 cockpit; all had LES and were AGM-65 Maverick compatible. 49 aircraft from this batch have subsequently got also the APX-80 Combat Tree enemy-IFF-interrogator, and a new digital navigation system.
Operation Peace Roll IV
Finally, in 1972 the last large batch was ordered, consisting of 35 F-4Es, with US serials 75-0222 thru 75-0257. The last aircraft from this batch was supplied only in 1978, but these Phantoms were some of the best equipped ever, then they have got not only the ASX-1 TISEO electro-optical sensor, but also the APX-80 Combat Tree enemy-IFF-interrogator, a new digital ARN-101 navigation system, and a cockpit layout with vastly improved position of instruments and switches (the so-called Mod.556 cockpit, which was a predecessor to subsequent "HOTAS" cockpits).
The serialling system of the Iranian F-4Es since January 1976 remains not entirely clear. It is known that at the time the F-4Es have also got serials consisting of a single-digit prefix and four-digit sufix, and ranging from 3-6501 thru 3-6691, however, no 191 F-4Es are known to have been delivered to Iran. Only 177 were. Besides, there was some attrition already by the time. Consequently, it is obvious that already then there were several gaps in the sequence.
To make matters worse, since 1980 the surviving F-4Es were re-serialled at least four times more. Even if few examples went through this all - and the war with Iraq - without ever being re-serialled (at least after 1976), the eventual current serials of most aircraft remain completely unknown.
Dark Gene
The story of RF-4Es in Iranian service is probably one of the most secret chapters in the history of the Phantom II. As it seems at one point in the early 1970s the USAF loaned two RF-4Cs to Iran. Actually, the aircraft - known to have been 69-0369 and 69-0370 - were used for "top secret" reconnaissance flights behind the Sovit borders, in a joint US-Iranian operation. It is known that these two Phantoms passed through US European bases underway to Iran on 8 August 1970.
Interestingly, only a month later Iran officially ordered six RF-4Es, and it is even more interesting to note how swiftly these were built and delivered at the time McDonnell Douglas was overloaded with orders from the USAF, USN, Luftwaffe and some other customers. Equally interesting is that although the official serials of the first six RF-4Es destigned for Iran were 72-0266 thru 72-0269, the first Iranian recce-Phantom was rolled off the production line already in the late autumn 1970, and made its maiden flight on 14 December of the same year! Even more so, it arrived in Iran already in March 1971, thus enabling the USAF to get back its two RF-4Cs to their bases in Germany and the UK (where these were noticed because of their desert camouflage pattern), in early March 1971. The serials of all the Iranian RF-4Es were:
ASX-1 TISEO i APX-80 Combat Tree
Intgrisana R-73
F4-D opremljen AN/AVQ-9 'Zot Box
F-4E sa Iranskom verzijom AIM-9, FATTER 1(40 km domet) i 2(nema nformacija)
|
