tbzz wrote:

Sukhoi and Mig

I suppose they are from the 1989 airshow at Baghdad?

IAR 330 Puma no. 03, VIP configuration from the 90th transport AB Otopeni.

Turkmenistan is an interesting place, too bad pretty much everything is stored (all their MiG-25s – 24 planes – along with scores of Floggers, some 21 blueish Fulcrum Cs not in a very good shape and scattered Su-25s, of which small numbers seem to be operational, on the flightline or in front of HASes. Check out the very long runway at Mary1, on the left side of which are lots of big crates (?!?). Mary2 also has an open storage compound with lots of metal containers…

You know, I’m surprised that despite the Iranians ability to reproduce the AH-1 Cobra and the Long Ranger and the ability of the Iranians to keep the F-4, F-14 and F-5 flying in addition to the ability to modify the F-5 into the Shafaq people still doubt their ability to fit a Russian missile onto an American plane…geez

You got me wrong. I don’t doubt their ability to do it, I doubt there’s any logic reason for it. As we all know Iranians have a strong tendency towards home-made products. So why integrate the R-73 (which must be in relatively small numbers – and also the downgraded export version, for the MiG-29 fleet; and they don’t have license for building it) when they can produce the AIM-9P in country, in large numbers?

flex, they have the license for C-802 (called Noor or something). If you look closely, in the last 16 years, Iranians have integrated on their planes only indigenously designed/copied/licensed weapons. R-73 is not among them.

But R-73s are a reality. After all, integrating an IR-guided missile is an relatively easy task.

How do you know? Got any proof?
Of course it can be done relatively easy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it was done.
Last month hundreds of photos from the IRIAF maneuvers were published, NONE showed R-73 on Tomcats, only AIM-9/7/54 and Hawks.

Nice ones, MIASCB!
Zimbabwe’s Thornhill AB also appeared recently in high-res – F-7s and K-8s can be made out.

PhantomII wrote:

I’ve even heard of Russian AAM’s such as R-73 and R-60 being fitted onto Iranian Phantoms.

It’s only a rumor – just like the one about Tomcats with R-73s and AL-31F engines – it never happened.