AIM-54 in a real conflict

Iran though, that’s another story entirely.

Another story indeed, which has varied from the pessimistic reports of the 1980s to the extremely exagerated propaganda of the last decade.

Is it true, that the AIM-54 was never used in a real fight by a U.S. Navy, only by Iran?

Keep in mind what the USN wanted the F-14/AIM-54 combo for in the first place. There was never an opportunity to fire Phoenixes at BACKFIREs, thankfully, so the only time it saw combat was a few pot shots taken at fleeing Iraqi aircraft in DESERT STORM.

Iran though, that’s another story entirely.

Is it true, that the AIM-54 was never used in a real fight by a U.S. Navy, only by Iran?

U.S. Navy F-14s did fire AIM-54s at Iraqi aircraft in 1999. Fired at long-range there was no indication that the missiles hit their targets. No claims of kills were made by the U.S. Navy.

Just a quick search on the web using Wiki sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFA-213

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VF-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_history_of_the_F-14

I seem to recall it was used to down some Lybian MiGs, but I don’t know the details.

Never heard of it. There were some kills of LARAF Fitters and Floggers by F-14s but the weapons used were AIM-9 Sidewinders, AFAIK.

I seem to recall it was used to down some Lybian MiGs, but I don’t know the details.