Ed Rasimus wrote in message . ..
On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:12:50 GMT, "Matt Wiser"
wrote:

Grumann and the Navy put on an air show at Andrews AFB in 1973 for the
Shah, where he was viewing the F-15 also. The test crew broke some of the
flight rules, but impressed the Shah enough for him to order the aircraft
(not on the spot, but within days). Also, the AIM-54 was seen as a perfect
anti-Foxbat weapon, as Iran was being constantly overflown by Soviet AF MiG-25Rs
in the early and mid 1970s. Check Tom Cooper's Iran-Iraq War in the air for
more info.
(It's a good read, BTW)

Foxbat was a problem during the period. The F-4 community was
practicing head-on snap-up intercepts to try to counter the high
altitude/high-speed overflights. It required a near perfect head-on
run at high speed, then a pull-up to reach Rmax for the Sparrow at the
apex. Firing then gave the missile a chance to meet the target before
Rmin at the altitude. If not perfect, the missile missed. The AIM-54
clearly gave the better shot at a Foxbat.

ISTR reading an account of an Israeli F-4 attempting to use this
procedure (I believe the book was titled "Zanek" or something similar)
against a Foxbat, unsuccesfully.

Brooks

snip