"In the 1980s, Iran Outfitted F-14s as Heavy Bombers" Topic

"Nearly 30 years, ago, the Iranian air force modified its U.S.-built F-14 Tomcat fighters to carry air-to-ground ordnance—including, in one spectacular case, a massive, 3.5-ton bomb.

Iran's bitter enemy Iraq actually inspired the idea of outfitting the twin-engine, swing-wing F-14s as bombers. Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war between 1980 and 1988.

Iraq's most notorious interceptor and recon jets were also its most prolific bombers. Baghdad's Soviet-supplied MiG-25 Foxbats could carry free-fall bombs and still reach Mach 2.5 at 60,000 feet…"
Full article here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

Iron bombs don't need much in the way of high tech – strap 'em on, and let 'em go is all that's required.

Max underside stores for a Tomcat was 7 tonnes. Half of that on one hardpoint is pushing it a bit though.

Given that the Tomcat's forerunner/competitor became the F-111, it's not a stretch to use it as a bomber. We did that ourselves over Iraq and Afghanistan.

What's stranger (to me) is that the top F-14 ace is Iranian. Woulda thought it was one of these guys for sure:

It's one thing to carry bombs, it's quite another to actually hit your target with them.

Yeah, doesn't do much good to drag a bomb with you if your accuracy is worse than WW2 bombers!

The USN F-14s were upgraded to carry ground attack ordnance and were actually quite capable in the role. Indeed the F-14B was known as the Bombcat.

Dunno what sort of upgrades Iranian ones had.

As for MiG-25, the MiG-25RB reconnaissance version had a ground attack capability whereas the P/PD interceptor variants did not.

The Syrians have been using their MiG-25RB's against rebels. They've also been using MiG-29s and even MiG-23MF/MLs in ground attack role as their stocks of L-39, Su-22, Su-24 and MiG-23BN ground attack aircraft dwindles.

ThomasHobbes, I've heard that munitions, maintenance, and general fatigue have been the primary causes for force depletion over there. Actual losses to enemy fire seem minimal- the snackbar es have -poor AAA.

SouthernPhantom, that's what I've heard.

There were a considerable number of confirmed kills early on when the SyAF was flying low level sorties but these have diminished since they've taken to far less accurate high altitude bombing.

Another problem was the rebels capturing several airbases including 2 major helicopter bases and at least 1 base equipped with L-39ZOs as well as from memory one of their main overhaul depots.

Whereas the rebels have not captured anything operational, the SyAF still lost whatever was grounded for whatever reason as well as spares and ammunition.

Also the Russians have agreed to supply the 36 Yak-130 trainers/light attack jets the Syrians ordered some time ago:

defensenews.com/article/20140506/DEFREG04/305060025/Russia-Supply-Yak-130-Jet-Trainers-Syria?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp

9 in 2014
12 in 2015
15 in 2016

That should revitalise SyAF COIN attack capability. Dunno if the deal includes guided weapons.