Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Good god. We're selling F-14 parts now??
And to WHO?!?!?!?
A short course is in order. I wrote about the recently retired F-14 Tomcat here. Read that, and then come on back.
Back? Good. Now, what I didn't say then is that when the F-14 first hit the fleet, it was one of the most modern and deadly fighter craft to take to the skies. It was highly advanced, and full of highly secret navigation and weapons systems, such as the AIM-54 Phoenix "Launch and Leave" missle system.
Unlike our other missile systems of the day, which required a radar "paint" on the target from the launching aircraft until impact, once the Phoenix missile's computer acquired the target, it could be launched and the launching aircraft could move on to other targets, or exit the area, and the missile would home onto the target all by its lonesome using its internal computer and radar guidance system. It was an insanely expensive, yet insanely effective weapon. They were so advanced that the US never sold the plane or missile to another air force. Save for one. The Imperial Iranian Air Force. Why we sold it remains a complete mystery to me. It was a mystery to me when we first sold it to the Shah, and it remains a mystery to me to this day, as the Shah was on shaky political footing and only 3 years away from being overthrown when the first plane was delivered. They eventually received approx 15 or so. Not sure as to the exact number.
But, that's neither here nor there. The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force still have both the aircraft and the missiles. There's been considerable debate as to exactly how many of them are still airworthy. There's supposedly been a parts and service embargo in place since the Shah's overthrow. But they still manage to keep some of them flying by cannibalizing parts from the other less airworthy examples. In the meantime, as I noted in my previous post, we've retired our fleet, and there's zero chance they will be coming back. The last one rolled off the lines years ago, and all of the tooling and dies have been scrapped.
Now here's a good question. If no other air force is using these planes, and there's no chance the Navy will use the aircraft again, what on earth are we doing keeping parts around? All of the airframes should have been gutted, and the internal parts scrapped immediately. The remaining airframe shells, with severed wing spars to prevent any future use, can be doled out to museums that want them, and the rest should be shredded and sent to the smelter, along with ALL of the pieces. There is NO NEED to keep anything useful from the planes in stock. NONE! Very little of the mechanical components interchanges with anything else in the Navy's inventory, so unique was the design.
What has me most upset about all of this, is that the current administration has been doing some saber rattling directed at Iran lately. I think that deep down, ole George "Mission Accomplished!" Dubya would LOVE a crack at Iran. If they still have airworthy examples of F-14s to use against our planes, we'll have Grumman aircraft being used to shoot our pilots down, probably using some of the parts they've managed to get their hands on lately.
A defense Dept official, Fred Baillie, was quoted as saying: "Our first priority truly is national security, and we take that very seriously. However, we have to balance that with our other requirement to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money."
Does that include the money the Pentagon pays as survivor's benefits to widows and children of American soldiers killed with our own weapons????
A short course is in order. I wrote about the recently retired F-14 Tomcat here. Read that, and then come on back.
Back? Good. Now, what I didn't say then is that when the F-14 first hit the fleet, it was one of the most modern and deadly fighter craft to take to the skies. It was highly advanced, and full of highly secret navigation and weapons systems, such as the AIM-54 Phoenix "Launch and Leave" missle system.
Unlike our other missile systems of the day, which required a radar "paint" on the target from the launching aircraft until impact, once the Phoenix missile's computer acquired the target, it could be launched and the launching aircraft could move on to other targets, or exit the area, and the missile would home onto the target all by its lonesome using its internal computer and radar guidance system. It was an insanely expensive, yet insanely effective weapon. They were so advanced that the US never sold the plane or missile to another air force. Save for one. The Imperial Iranian Air Force. Why we sold it remains a complete mystery to me. It was a mystery to me when we first sold it to the Shah, and it remains a mystery to me to this day, as the Shah was on shaky political footing and only 3 years away from being overthrown when the first plane was delivered. They eventually received approx 15 or so. Not sure as to the exact number.
But, that's neither here nor there. The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force still have both the aircraft and the missiles. There's been considerable debate as to exactly how many of them are still airworthy. There's supposedly been a parts and service embargo in place since the Shah's overthrow. But they still manage to keep some of them flying by cannibalizing parts from the other less airworthy examples. In the meantime, as I noted in my previous post, we've retired our fleet, and there's zero chance they will be coming back. The last one rolled off the lines years ago, and all of the tooling and dies have been scrapped.
Now here's a good question. If no other air force is using these planes, and there's no chance the Navy will use the aircraft again, what on earth are we doing keeping parts around? All of the airframes should have been gutted, and the internal parts scrapped immediately. The remaining airframe shells, with severed wing spars to prevent any future use, can be doled out to museums that want them, and the rest should be shredded and sent to the smelter, along with ALL of the pieces. There is NO NEED to keep anything useful from the planes in stock. NONE! Very little of the mechanical components interchanges with anything else in the Navy's inventory, so unique was the design.
What has me most upset about all of this, is that the current administration has been doing some saber rattling directed at Iran lately. I think that deep down, ole George "Mission Accomplished!" Dubya would LOVE a crack at Iran. If they still have airworthy examples of F-14s to use against our planes, we'll have Grumman aircraft being used to shoot our pilots down, probably using some of the parts they've managed to get their hands on lately.
A defense Dept official, Fred Baillie, was quoted as saying: "Our first priority truly is national security, and we take that very seriously. However, we have to balance that with our other requirement to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money."
Does that include the money the Pentagon pays as survivor's benefits to widows and children of American soldiers killed with our own weapons????
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Your entire post was predicated on common sense, which is good. But then you talk about our Government.... Sometimes I wonder, if "we" don't arm these guys just so we CAN have a war with them later? I know it sounds insane, but war's damn good for bidness and all that flag waving stuff.
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