"Tom Cooper" waxed lyrical
:

In the 1970s, Drewe, Iran purchased a total of 14 Boeing 707-3J9C and
four Boeing 747-2J9C tankers (up to 17 Boeing 747s were purchased for
military purposes by Iran, however, only four of these were tankers).

All of these were equipped with booms, and were originally intended to
support the large fleet of F-4Es, which were equipped with the USAF
IFR-system ("boom-and-receptacle").

As F-14s were equipped with the USN-system ("drogue-and-probe"), it
was decided to re-equip them with the USAF-system at a later stage:
for testing purposes of such a system on the Tomcat, the 80th F-14A
sold to Iran was held back in the USA (and was also never delivered).

Before this could be done a temporary solution was found through the
purchase of some eight Beech 1800 IFR-pods: either four or six Boeing
707s were modified to carry these, and so the IIAF F-14A-pilots could
do their IFR-training in the 1970s (and later operate with extensive
tanker support during the IPGW - or the "Iraq-Iran War") without any
problems.

Therefore, the Iranian tankers were not equipped with the adaptor
drogue that can be mounted on the USAF-style flying boom, and - in
turn - this all was of no influence for the Iranian decision to remove
the covers for IFR-probe from their Tomcats.


Thanks Tom. The good bit about my consistently incorrect postulations is
that I'm constantly learning!

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Regards
Drewe
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity