WI The Canadian Forces Bought the F-14s?

In 1979-1980, Canada was looking to buy new fighters to replace its aging CF-104, CF-101 and CF-116 fleet. One of the opportunities that came about through the back door was the purchase of Iran's 79 F-14As. After the Islamic Revolution, the Iranians couldn't get parts for them, and the Canadians offered to buy them for a big discount. That plan ended when Iraq attacked in September 1980 and the Iranians found out about a Canadian diplomat helping US embassy personnel escape from the hostage crisis. The Canadians would up buying the F/A-18, which became the CF-18.

Now, let's say for a minute that Canada was able to buy the F-14s. The F-14s would fill the void of the CF-101 perfectly, as they were designed for the role the Canucks needed under NORAD, which was long-range interceptors.

Now, they would still need multi-role capability, which the US didn't develop for the F-14 until the 1990s. Perhaps the CF Air Command gets the F-14s as interceptors and the CF-18s as multi-role attackers?

And with their air needs covered by the F-14, perhaps the CF-18s go with the troops to the Gulf and Afghanistan?

There is a second possiblity for Canadian Tomcats: Grumman demo'd the Tomcat in Canada in 1976, and the CAF was very interested. If the Shah hadn't been overthrown, he was going to order 70 additional Tomcats, which would've driven the price down, and the CAF would have found the F-14 more affordable. Two NORAD CINCs (and these are USAF four-stars, btw) formally reccommended a USAF purchase of the F-14 for NORAD-dedicated Continental Air Defense squadrons. Had those two events occurred, you're going to see new-build Tomcats from Calverton going north of the border.

^ I had forgotten about the idea of the NORAD F-14 recommendation. That would have resistance form the USAF, though. Four-stars or not, the USAF would probably want more than anything to have the F-15 doing that job. The Canadians were impressed with the Tomcat, but the price was high. I think its was just a matter of when the Shah went down, and the Tomcat is a big and sophisticated aircraft. I don't think the Canucks would have bought new-build Tomcats for cost reasons.

I vaguely remember reading a short article about a plan in the late 1970's for Canada to buy Iran's fleet of F-14 Tomcats at bargain basement prices (to be fair, they were getting bargain basement Tomcats...) It seemed to be a win-win-win situation. Canada got replacement jets, the Iranians got rid of their F-14's which, despite being excellent fighter aircraft, were going to prove impossible to maintain in the long run, and the USA saw their new enemy lose a very effective fighter plane.

The entire plan was derailed with the Canadian Embassy's actions during the hostage crisis in which they granted provisional Canadian passports to several Americans in order to facilitate their evacuation from Iran.

That particular incident can spawn a host of weapons based ATLs; Kidd class destroyers to the USN, Khalid tanks to Jordan, Challenger tanks to Britain spring to mind.

Check the books Iran-Iraq War in the Air and Iranian F-14 Units in Combat; they debunk the rumored Canadian F-14 buy from Iran. The scenario most likely to have happened was a resale back to the U.S., the planes refurbished by Grumman, and resold to Saudi Arabia. However, the events of 4 Nov 1979 and afterwards took care of that idea.

I have to ask... would it have mattered much? Wondering what type of planes Canada might have would matter only if Canada had to use them against someone... in the 1980's, Canada (AFAIK) didn't do much military adventuring anywhere. As for Iran losing the F-14s... well, that might have made a difference in the Iran/Iraq war (by their absence). But as far as the US is concerned, Iran's F-14s were rather negligable... they made no difference at all in the short clash between Iran and the US in the Gulf...

Dave Howery said:

But as far as the US is concerned, Iran's F-14s were rather negligable... they made no difference at all in the short clash between Iran and the US in the Gulf...

Click to expand...

Were they even deployed?

I read about Operation Praying Mantis and it made no mention of aircraft, only ships.

In Preying Mantis, a pair of IRIAF F-4s did try to attack one of the USN surface groups, and the flight lead took a near-miss SM-2 missile from U.S.S. Wainwright (CG-28). The plane made it back to Bandar Abbas with significant frag damage to the tail, rudder, and elevons.

The IRIAF made good use of its F-14s. The Osprey book on Iranian F-14s (mentioned previously) is a good source of info. Most of the info comes from former IRIAF pilots and WSOs who flew Tomcats in 1980-88. And there was at least one Tomcat Ace (9 kills and three probables against the Iraqi AF). Best estimate according to the book is 138 kills credited to the IRIAF's Tomcat force, from helos up to MiG-25s. And the Iranians were getting spare parts all thru the 1980s. Iran-Contra wasn't the only such transfer....there were others in which nobody was prosecuted, let alone indicted.