Friday, 23 June 2017

McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II, Iranian users

The Imperial Iranian Air Force first and the Islamic Republic of Iran later employed the F-4D (which we already covered in a previous post) and the F-4E, 225 of them in total.
They were extensively used in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and nowadays they are still operational thanks to Iran's Aerospace Industries.
They made some notable actions like the Operation Scorch Sword, where two F-4E bombed the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor site, close to Baghdad on 30th September 1980, or the H-3 air strike, when 8 Iranian F-4Es striked the H-3 complex of air bases in the westernmost part of Iraq, resulting in the destruction or damage of many Iraqi aircrafts, for no Iranian losses.
On 5th June 1985 two Saudi Arabian F-15 shot down two Iranian F-4E fighters using air-to-air missiles and they had KC-135 aerial tankers and Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS surveillance to assist them. It happened in Saudi airspace, over the gulf near the island of Al-Arabiyah, approximately 60 miles northeast of Jubail.
Iran still uses the F-4E as they still are employed to strike ISIS positions in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala from time to time. The last known one was made in 2014.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#Iran
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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