Any photos of Libyan Mirage F.1ADs?

Anyone have pictures of SA-365C Dauphin Is from Sri Lanka or Hong Kong Goverment Flying Service or of the SA-365N Dauphin IIs from Romania?

A little off-topic, but given your handle, do you think the F-14s stand a chance defending iran soon?

Well,first off,I’m NOT trying to start a flame war,but the F-14 would do in my opinion a pretty good job,but remember,its just a part of the overall Iranian AD system.

The F-14,with its Phoenix missiles(and YES,Iran still has them) along with the SA-10 SAMs make up the the long range defense while the Fulcrums,Phantom IIs and HAWKs make up the medium range and the shorter ranged SA-15 and F-7 Fishbeds and F-5 Tiger IIs do the point defense work.

Now,remember the F-14 was designed and built to counter long range bombers and cruise missiles.So,taking down say,Tomahawk cruise missiles,B-1s or B-52s would be no problem.I’d also throw in AWACS since an F-14 could launch a Phoenix still in Iranain airspace and hit an E-3 over friendly airspace over the Persian Gulf,Iraq,or Saudi Arabia.Taking down high priority targets would be the F-14s bread and butter.

So,in conclusion,I think everything up to a B-2 could be taken down by a Tomcat.And as far as USAF sending in their F-22s,I wouldn’t count on it.Imagine if,just if,one of those Raptors got splashed by Tiger II or Fishbed.Laugh,but Mig-17s were downing much more advanced Phantom IIs over Vietnam.It could happen.Therefore,the USAF might be reluctant to deploy the Raptors just as they did with the Osprey in Iraq.

So,I think the biggest threat would be the Subpar Hornet and those maybe of some value,maybe absorbe a Phoenix that would have otherwise taken down a Hawkeye.

Heres the thing to end all,Iran isn’t stupid they’re expecting an attack sooner or later,and know the general directions it could come from.They are well motivated and well trained.They also know what our aircraft and cruise missiles look like on radar.If they see a strike force headed from Israel,they’re launching their IRBMs,no question.The AD is there just to protect the missiles long enough for them to get off the ground.Sure the Isrealis will kick ass,but might not have anywhere to go home to afterward.

Assuming Iran has WMDs,the performance of the Tomcat against the Super Hornet becomes irrelivent because the Tomcat is only going to have to survive long enough for those weapons to be used.

[QUOTE=PhantomII;1279601]What exactly is the point of a maritime patrol aircraft that can’t engage surface warships (at least not effectively)?

The old CP-121 Trackers that the Aurora replaced only used 2.75in unguided rockets for ASV,not that the Tracker could do much better.,But I suspect that the driving force was the threat of Soviet subs.

Also another thing to keep in mind is that,during the Cold War,the US had full spec Orions based at Keflavik,the Brits had their Nimrods and just a few miles to the south,in the US were more full spec P-3s.So,Overall,the Canadians could settle with lower spec aircraft since the important GIUK gap was covered by US Orions and British Nimrods.Now,the Auroras could have provided convoy escort,to decect and dispatch with Russian SSNs,but then,I suspect they would have handed over to the Keflavik Orions at a given point.

I remember reading about a Flanker AWACS,however,I thought the radome would have been mounted on the back,like the Erieye.Still looks good though.

As far as imintating it,looks like a job for the Subpar Whorenet.It would seem the Russians have taken the idea of one airframe for many missions past the US,since we now have an AWACS model,and the Su-32FN was a maritime strike/ASW model.

Give it time though,the US will need something better then Seahawks to replace the Vikings.

It was a howitzer that took down the C-7.The Caribou was comming in to resupply the base and the battery commander failed to get ther cease fire order.The rest was pretty much a lucky (or mor likely unlucky ) shot by the 155mm gun crew.The shell itself didn’t so much blow off the tail as much it just sheared it off from the impact.

It was then SecofDefense Cheney who had the Tomcat tooling and jigs destroyed.I think this speaks for itself as hes not known for rational thought.

Two more what-ifs.

What if the Tomcat had got the export orders from Australia,Canada,Spain (winning over the Hornet) and Israel,Saudi Arabia and Japan (beating out the Eagle). One thing for sure would be lower unit cost not to mention a larger market for possible upgrades.

Also what if Iran had stayed on good terms with the west long enough to get the nice arms package they had in the works that included 2x Invincible Class CVs,Sea Harriers,F-16s and E-3s?