فابین راهبرد

he Iranian Air Force today operates over 40 F-14 Tomcat swept wing twin engine air superiority fighters, platforms acquired from the United States before the overthrow of the Western aligned Pahlavi dynasty in 1979 for which the service was the only export client. At the time of purchase the F-14 was the most costly fighter jet ever deployed, and had been developed as a high end platform capable of engaging the elite of an enemy air fleet and intercepting long range bombers such as the Soviet Tu-22 at extreme ranges. The aircraft was the first fourth generation fighter to enter service anywhere in the world, and augmented Iran’s already formidable third generation fleet of F-4E Phantom air superiority fighters and F-5E Tiger light multirole jets. The Tomcats were delivered from the mid 1970s, shortly after the United States Navy began to receive its own F-14s, and were particularly prized as a means of countering the threat posed by Soviet and Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbats - against which American third generation fighters had already proven ineffective. The Foxbats were high altitude aircraft which came in interceptor, reconnaissance and bomber variants, with the ability to exceed speeds of Mach 3 at high altitude making them the fastest combat jets ever fielded to this day. In Iran’s subsequent war with Iraq during the 1980s, F-14 fighters armed with AIM-54 Phoenix long range air to air missiles proved the only effective means of countering Iraqi MiG-25RB jets which were used to target population centres across Iran - compensating for the near total ineffectiveness of Iranian MIM-23 and other surface to air missile platforms against these targets. Even for the F-14, however, engaging the Foxbats at high speeds and altitudes remains highly challenging. 

Soviet MiG-25RB Reconnaissance Bomber

Of the Iranian Air Force’s 17 fighter squadrons today, the two F-14 squadrons remain the only one equipped with long range air to air missiles - formerly the AIM-54 and today the more advanced indigenous derivative Fakour-90. Until 2016 when it acquired its first S-300PMU-2 missile systems from Russia, Iran any lacked modern long range air defences which combined with shortcomings in the rest of its Air Force placed a heavy burned on the Tomcat fleet to perform air defence duties. Thus, at a time of particularly high tensions with the United States in the early 2000s when prospects of war remained high, one of of the Iranian Air Force’s F-14 squadrons was stationed to Bushehr - the site of one of the country’s major nuclear facilities which was expected to be a prime target in case of attack by America or its allies. Iran had good cause to fear a preventative strike on its nuclear facilities, given precedents set by both the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of preventing the counry’s development of nuclear and biological weapons, and of Israeli strikes under Operation Opera and Operation Outside the Box targeting Iraqi and Syrian nuclear reactors respectively. As the elite of the Iranian Air Force and its most capable anti aircraft asset, Tomcats were assigned to guard over Bushehr and two other nuclear sites. 

Iranian Air Force F-14 Tomcats

Iranian reports indicate that U.S. surveillance flights over its territory, using advanced reconnaissance drones such as the RQ-170, targeted nuclear sites in particular to gather intelligence on these priority targets. Flights were also intended to gain intelligence which could clean information regarding the progress Iran had made with its nuclear development. While some nuclear sites had been heavy fortified with North Korean assistance, the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant being key example located inside a mountain, bombers carrying penetrative munitions could potentially damage these in the event of an attack. F-14 squadrons protecting these facilities reportedly had some success in deterring reconnaissance flights, but later made some highly unusual reports regarding the nature of American surveillance assets which entered their airspace. They alleged that drones operated by American intelligence demonstrated the ability to fly at extreme altitudes at hypersonic speeds, and deployed powerful electronic countermeasures including magnetic radar jammers which thwarted the Tomcats’ ability to intercept them. Expert on Iranian aviation Babak Taghvaee summarised these reports as follows: “The CIA’s intelligence drones displayed astonishing flight characteristics, including an ability to fly outside the atmosphere, attain a maximum cruise speed of Mach 10 and a minimum speed of zero, with the ability to hover over the target… the drones used powerful [electronic countermeasures] that could jam enemy radars using very high levels of magnetic energy.” According to these reports, an attempt by an F-14 to intercept one such drone over a nuclear facility at Arak in November 2004 saw the Tomcat’s AWG-9 radar disrupted preventing a lock. Taghvaee further noted that reported incidents involving these hypersonic drones had continued into the 2010s, with Iran alleging that one had downed an F-14 Tomcat attempting to intercept it in January 2012 - the condition of which had been "one of the finest" in its inventory. 

SR-71 Blackbird High Altitude Surveillance Aircraft

Ultimately the reports of hypersonic American drones operating in near space with anti radar magnetic weapons are likely to be the result of some paranoia regarding the defence of Iranian nuclear sites, though it cannot be ruled out as entirely fantastical based on the history of American aviation. The U.S. began to invest in extremely speed high altitude aircraft from the late 1950s to penetrate enemy airspace for both surveillance roles and offensive operations. The Mach 3 B-70 Valkyrie heavy bomber capable of flying at extreme altitudes of 23km was one example, and its prototypes achieved such a performance using technologies over 60 years old. The SR-71 Blackbird, which saw its first flight the same year as the Valkyrie and was capable of similar speeds and higher altitudes of 25.9km was another example - and was deployed extensively during the Cold War against the Soviet Union in particular. Given that these were the products of American aviation in the early 1960s, the possibility of hypersonic surveillance jets developed under black programs and deployed in the early 2000s may not be as strange as it would appear. Indeed, with the SR-71 proving less and less effective at penetrating Soviet airspace by the mid 1980s due to the USSR’s deployment of ever more advanced interceptors and air defences, the possibility of a faster and higher altitude surveillance aircraft being developed to replace the pre Vietnam War era Blackbird remains considerable. Whether the SR-72, a hypersonic near space surveillance drone currently being developed by Lockheed Martin, represents the latest of many aircraft of its kind, or whether Iranian accounts were either mistaken or fabricated, remains uncertain.