Iran Has Cloned America’s Phoenix Missile

July 31, 2018

The National Interest:

Iran has begun mass production of a long-range air-to-air missile. And if it looks familiar, it should. The Fakour 90 is Tehran’s knockoff of the U.S. AIM-54 Phoenix missile, once the prime weapon of the U.S. Navy’s F-14 Tomcat fighter. Before the Shah of Iran was deposed by Islamic revolutionaries, the U.S. sold vast amounts of advanced weaponry to Iran, including F-14s, F-4 Phantoms, M60 tanks and Phoenix missiles.

Iran’s new “Death to America” government analyzed and reverse-engineered the U.S. weapons (it also sent some to the Soviet Union for examination). Gripped in a devastating eight-year war with Iran, and embargoed from new Western arms, Tehran became expert in keeping its American weapons going through black-market purchases (such as the Iran-Contra affair) and homemade spare parts.

The Phoenix was an achievement in its day, a 13-foot-long missile with a 100-mile range. Coupled with the F-14’s long-range AWG-9 radar, the Tomcat/Phoenix was supposed to shoot down Soviet bombers before they could get within range of the fleet. The Phoenix was first deployed in 1974 and retired in 2004, joined a few years later by the Tomcat itself as the Navy moved on to the F-18.

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