"Paul Michael Brown" wrote in message
news
It seems there is credible evidence for around 130 air-to-air F-14 kills,
with some 40 of those been AIM-54 kills. Actual recorded claims are
higher
than that, but let's stay cautious.

Isn't there also evidence to suggest that the Iranians used the Tomcat as
an airborne warning and control aircraft?

The Iraqis have sure lost quite a lot of aircraft during the long
Iraq-Iran
war, with quite a few MiG-21/23/25, Mirage F1, Su-22 and other assorted
types being credited to the Tomcats by both sides. It has been often
relayed
as a fact that, during the 1st Gulf War, the Iraqis were very unwilling
to
go anywhere near the USN F-14s and their tell-tale AWG-9 signature, while
not being so shy towards the Eagles.

Re the Iraqis purported preference to engage "the Eagles," I assume this
refers to F-15s. I was not aware the Iranians purchased any F-15s. Of
course I could be wrong. Can anybody weigh in on this point?

he said 'during the 1st Gulf War' not the Iran-Iraq war.

And while I will admit never taking a good look at the subject, everything I
have read re the Iranian F-14s says that they had a lot of trouble keeping
the aircraft and missles maintained once the US techs left. Because of this
the few flyable F-14s left at wars end were pretty much AWAC only. 130 A2A
kills sounds like an awful lot to me.