Except for the fact that CIA ordered US ground crew in Iran to sabotage
Phoenix related gear in Tomcats' radars as soon as the shah fell from
power.

Iranian sources claim that only 12 were sabotaged, and those were later
fixed with parts out of that Iran-Contra deal.

Otherwise the AIM54 was never meant to be used against small and agile
targets like fighter bombers, which Iraq had. In contrast a cruise missile
or a bomb-laden Tu-95 cannot do the immelman, so they are easy to hit with
a big and necessarily sluggish missile from 70 nm.

Well, most of the kills were against MiGs... true it seems they were not
maneuvering much, but most BVR kills are like that.

Otherwise all variable wing planes suck a great deal: heavy,
trouble-prone, cost a lot to maintain, wings mecha takes up precious place
in the fuselage, won't survive battle damage. No wonder the USN is

Tell you what... the swing wing spar IS the thoughest piece of metal on the
Tomcat. You can claim the bird is prone to battle damage everywhere BUT on
the swing-wing mechanism.

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José Herculano