iraqi airforce in 1980s

They also had Chieftain Tanks, helicopter gun ships, had advanced US warships on order etc...

Also IMHO during the Iran / Iraq war the Iranian Air Force seemed quite adept in using what they had despite the lack of support from the U.S.

As I understand things the Air Force was realitivley western in certain respects, and as others have mentioned some of the key staff were apparently jailed after the revolution and subsequently released to fight in the Iran / Iraq war.

Like many other dictatorships the pre Revolution Iranian airforce tended to be drawn from the ranks of the upper/upper middle class that were the most fervent Shah supporters. Since pretty much all of the airforce pilots were considered politically reliable by the Shah's government the Mullah's government considered them effectively enemies of the state. So at the time of the Iraqi attack more or less the entire Iranian airforce was grounded with pretty much all of the pilots in prison and or being tortured. A handful had fled abroad or were executed by the revolutionaries but most were still alive at the start of the war. That allowed the Mullah's to relatively rapidly get at least some of their new airforce back in the fight.

If the Mullahs had say executed most of the pilots instead of just imprisoning them it would have been a hell of a lot harder to get the airforce into the fight. Iran would be left with a huge number of modern or semi modern aircraft but little ability to actually use them.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
I dunno, North Korea was probably the most important supplier to Iran. They sold them some locally made versions of Soviet arms and also funneled even larger amounts Chinese arms and supplies there. It was lucrative, especially the Iranian oil. No way they'd turn on them.
The iranian SSM also came from NK ?
 
In some ways yes ... by 1978 they had 150 F4 and 70+ f14 that is a better fighter force than all the VVS PVO regiments stationed in southern USSR

Plus what another 150 F5s?

And at the time of the revolution they had another 70+ F14s and 300 F16s on order. And they were trying to purchase another 250 F18s.
 

Yes, exactly:

"The inability of third world nations to independently organize, train, and equip air forces to decisive levels is inevitable. Avoiding large, wasted sums of money fielding a force of questionable value should lead these countries to alternative forms of aerial warfare."

I would dispute the first sentence - air power in 80's sense was not just nifty interceptors and bombers but also the ability to airlift reliable troops all around, the ability to purchase and deliver shady purchases world wide, to have a few anti-ship missiles to force your enemy to operate within certain envelope etc.

But the second sentence is spot on. In hindsight, Iraqi Air Force was largely a waste. The money would have been better spent on various SSM's, artillery, GBAD etc.
 
Mirage F1 even in larger numbers couldn't counter F14 any better than mig23ML or mig25PD I would think

Iraqi F-1s had some success against Tomcats, like when two of them used the giraffe tactic to knock off a pair of F-14s. A MIG-23 enjoyed similar success.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
Iraqi F-1s had some success against Tomcats, like when two of them used the giraffe tactic to knock off a pair of F-14s. A MIG-23 enjoyed similar success.
I was only familiar with the mig23 using giraffe tactics
Mig23ML and mirage F1 are pretty equivalent aircraft though
 
It occurs to me that the most effective way that Iraq could improve the performance of it's air force pre war would be an intelligence operation. Basically try and convince the Mullah's that some pro Shah/ Iraqi force is about to try and help the pilots and other imprisoned pro Shah military professionals escape from prison. The goal would be to get the Mullahs to overreact and execute the pilots and other military professionals before they can be "liberated" by the nonexistent operation.

Something like Operation Mincemeat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat

Maybe do a similar op and drop a dead man in a fake Iraqi uniform with planted disinformation near the Iranian coast.
 
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