April 16, 2004 at 10:15 am
In your opinion, which country has the most interesting inventory?
I vote for Iran.
– a fabulous combo of Western and Eastern aircraft
(F-14As, F-4Es and F-5Es alongside Chengdu F-7, MiG-29, Su-24MK and Su-25K, additionally Mirage F1EQ-5s)
– some rare domestic equipment (JT-2 Tazarve, soon-to-come Shafaq)
– totally mixed up weapons configurations (R-60MK on F-4D/E, R-73 and Hawk SAM on F-14A, Mk82 and Chinese C-802K ASMs on Su-24MK etc.)
– beautiful camouflage schemes (two-tone grey Phantoms and Tigers, desert Tomcats, Phantoms and Tigers, the new two tone grey/yellow for F-14, MiG-29 and F-7, at least three schemes for Su-24MK IIRC, four-tone desert camo for Su-25K, ex-Iraqi camo for F1EQ)
– active history and magnificient kill ratio
I call this simply the ultimate Air Force…