Iran Flew US Military Grumman F-14 Tomcat Fighters to War and Fired a Mach 4 Missile 'Made in the USA' To Destroy 78 Aircraft

Iran used its Grumman F-14 Tomcats in the Iran-Iraq War to fire the AIM-54 Phoenix and is widely credited in aviation histories with 78 Phoenix air-combat victories, while the U.S. Navy recorded no credited kills from three AIM-54 shots fired in combat, including two misses against Iraqi MiG-25s in 1999. The article notes the score is not an officially audited total and highlights Smithsonian’s warning that Iranian records may be altered or incomplete. It also outlines why Iran acquired the system after Soviet MiG-25 overflights and describes early testing and delivery context, including a June 1974 State Department cable estimating that an 80-aircraft order could return nearly $1.8 billion to the U.S. before missile costs.