Air Force commander Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh said Saturday the Iranian Air Force operates American-made F-14 fighter jets entirely with parts made inside Iran—a claim made questionable by the continuing arrest of people in the United States for trying to smuggle F-14 parts to Iran.
“Although there exist restrictions and sanctions on Iran regarding the procurement of equipment in all sectors, these sanctions are doubly severe when it comes to F-14 fighter jets because the aircraft was only used in the US and Iran,” said Nasirzadeh. The Americans never sold the F-14 to anyone other than the Shah.
“Today, technicians at the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Air Force do reverse engineering, and all parts required by this fighter jet are made or upgraded inside the country,” he said.
But as recently as January, Marc Knapp, 36, of Simi Valley, California, pleaded guilty in court to trying to ship to Iran an F-14 ejection seat and emergency operations manual.
Last June, Omid Khalili, 29, pleaded guilty in Mobile, Alabama, to trying to smuggle electronic components for the F-14 to Iran.
In June 2009, Hassan Keshari, 48, pleaded guilty to trying to send parts for the F-14 and other aircraft to Iran.
The Washington Post reported in October 2007 that after almost three decades of efforts at reverse engineering the Islamic Republic had managed to produce only about 15 percent of the parts it needs for its American-made fighter jets—the F-14, F-4 and F-6. As a result, smuggling efforts are essential.
But the F-4 and F-5 were sold to many countries, so parts for those planes are available all over the world, while the F-14 was only used by the US Navy and Iran.
The United States provided hundreds of F-5s to the South Vietnamese Air Force. Those planes all fell into the hands of North Vietnam when South Vietnam was overrun in 1975. Iran subsequently bought F-5 parts wholesale from Hanoi.