I meant wings that fold up so the plane can fit on a carrier. Would the IAF have those? Its possible, but I doubt it.
China and Iran bought retired F-14 spare part
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I meant wings that fold up so the plane can fit on a carrier. Would the IAF have those? Its possible, but I doubt it.
Pointblank
Senior Member
The Iranian F-14's as delivered were virtually identical to the USN F-14A's. When the Iranian Revolution occurred,the last F-14 that was to be delivered to Iran was embargoed, and was instead delivered to the USN.
Seems the US is till concerned about old Tomcat parts falling into the "wrong hands" . The just sezied four retired Tomcats from a TV production company and musuems. The US says they were not demilitarized.
Feds seize retired F-14s seized from SoCal museums, TV company
By Daisy Nguyen
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:21 p.m. March 6, 2007
LOS ANGELES – Federal agents on Tuesday seized four retired F-14 fighter jets that authorities said were improperly transferred from the Navy to two air museums and the company that produced the TV show “JAG.”
The Tomcats were not properly demilitarized before being transferred to private parties, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a 17-month investigation.
Under the rigorous demilitarization process, navigation, radar and other sensitive equipment are disabled so they can no longer perform military functions, said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a U.S. Navy spokesman.
“In this case, it seems (the jets) didn't formally undergo the process,” Werner said.
Two of the jets were at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, Calif., another was at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, and the fourth, which was acquired by Paramount Pictures, then resold to a scraps dealer, had been stored at a facility operated by Southern California Aviation at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, Calif.
None of the jets were currently flyable, but one in Chino still has its engines and was at least superficially in very good condition, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. The other three do not have engines but were otherwise essentially whole, she said.
There was no indication any of the hardware fell into the wrong hands “but it does present a vulnerability,” Kice said.
After-hours calls to curators at the Yanks Air and Planes of Fame museums were not immediately returned Tuesday. Efforts to reach Mark Thomson, the scrap dealer who bought the F-14 from the producer of “JAG,” were unsuccessful.
The Navy added F-14s to the fleet in 1972 and retired the last of them in 2006.
Iran, which acquired F-14s in the 1970s when it was an ally of the United States, is the only country trying to keep the jets in the air.
With little ability to produce parts on its own, Iran is aggressively pursuing several avenues to obtain U.S. spares, including contacting American aerospace supply companies or using U.S-based “front companies” to broker deals, according to an affidavit filed in support of the F-14 seizures.
“The aircraft, therefore, present an extreme safety hazard to the public, with potential liability on the part of the United States Department of Navy,” ICE special agent Joshua Barnett wrote in the affidavit.
The four seized jets were retired from active service at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Calif. in the late 1990s. A former Naval Chief Warrant Officer told investigators he sold the F-14s to a scrap dealer without verifying they were properly demilitarized and expected the fighter jets to be destroyed, the affidavit said.
“The same thing that makes these planes a source of interest for aircraft enthusiasts, their relatively pristine condition, also makes them desirable for those with less innocent motives,” Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.
“The strict regulations governing the transfer of military aircraft are designed to reduce the likelihood that sensitive equipment and technology might fall into the hands of individuals or countries seeking to do us or our allies harm,” Schoch said.
The jets will be partially dismantled and taken to the military's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center in Tucson, Ariz., for storage and final demilitarization.
Feds seize retired F-14s seized from SoCal museums, TV company
By Daisy Nguyen
ASSOCIATED PRESS
9:21 p.m. March 6, 2007
LOS ANGELES – Federal agents on Tuesday seized four retired F-14 fighter jets that authorities said were improperly transferred from the Navy to two air museums and the company that produced the TV show “JAG.”
The Tomcats were not properly demilitarized before being transferred to private parties, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which worked with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in a 17-month investigation.
Under the rigorous demilitarization process, navigation, radar and other sensitive equipment are disabled so they can no longer perform military functions, said Cmdr. Dave Werner, a U.S. Navy spokesman.
“In this case, it seems (the jets) didn't formally undergo the process,” Werner said.
Two of the jets were at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino, Calif., another was at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, and the fourth, which was acquired by Paramount Pictures, then resold to a scraps dealer, had been stored at a facility operated by Southern California Aviation at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, Calif.
None of the jets were currently flyable, but one in Chino still has its engines and was at least superficially in very good condition, said ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. The other three do not have engines but were otherwise essentially whole, she said.
There was no indication any of the hardware fell into the wrong hands “but it does present a vulnerability,” Kice said.
After-hours calls to curators at the Yanks Air and Planes of Fame museums were not immediately returned Tuesday. Efforts to reach Mark Thomson, the scrap dealer who bought the F-14 from the producer of “JAG,” were unsuccessful.
The Navy added F-14s to the fleet in 1972 and retired the last of them in 2006.
Iran, which acquired F-14s in the 1970s when it was an ally of the United States, is the only country trying to keep the jets in the air.
With little ability to produce parts on its own, Iran is aggressively pursuing several avenues to obtain U.S. spares, including contacting American aerospace supply companies or using U.S-based “front companies” to broker deals, according to an affidavit filed in support of the F-14 seizures.
“The aircraft, therefore, present an extreme safety hazard to the public, with potential liability on the part of the United States Department of Navy,” ICE special agent Joshua Barnett wrote in the affidavit.
The four seized jets were retired from active service at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Calif. in the late 1990s. A former Naval Chief Warrant Officer told investigators he sold the F-14s to a scrap dealer without verifying they were properly demilitarized and expected the fighter jets to be destroyed, the affidavit said.
“The same thing that makes these planes a source of interest for aircraft enthusiasts, their relatively pristine condition, also makes them desirable for those with less innocent motives,” Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles, said in a statement.
“The strict regulations governing the transfer of military aircraft are designed to reduce the likelihood that sensitive equipment and technology might fall into the hands of individuals or countries seeking to do us or our allies harm,” Schoch said.
The jets will be partially dismantled and taken to the military's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center in Tucson, Ariz., for storage and final demilitarization.
I found this article on LA Times today. Geez someone sold them for few thousand bucks and it was re-sold to private museum for $50,000? That's a hefy profit margain. Also the article specified that the tomcat should NOT have been sold to scrap metal company. I think they really want these aircraft destroyed completely.
==========================
4 F-14s seized at Southland airports
The fighter jets were not properly demilitarized and their sale was improper, officials say.
By Maeve Reston and Garrett Therolf
Times Staff Writers
March 7, 2007
Federal agents seized four F-14 Tomcat fighters in San Bernardino County on Tuesday — three from airplane museums — after investigators determined that the jets were not demilitarized and were improperly sold or transferred to private companies, including the producer of the TV show "JAG," authorities said.
When the jets were retired in the mid-1990s at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Navy officials failed to ensure that the aircraft were stripped of military hardware, according to a court affidavit filed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Three of the fighter jets then were sold, in "unauthorized deals," to an Oxnard scrap company for $4,000 or less apiece, and one was acquired as a prop for the military drama "JAG," according to the affidavit and federal officials.
The proceeds from the sales went to a Morale Welfare and Recreation Fund for a squadron at the Ventura County naval base, according to the federal affidavit, filed by ICE Special Agent Joshua Barnett.
On Tuesday, customs agents and officials with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service seized two of the fighters from the Yanks Air Museum and one from the Planes of Fame air museum, both at the Chino Airport. Investigators learned about the F-14s during an undercover sting operation when they were investigating the potential sale of jet fighter parts to Iran, according to the affidavit.
A fourth jet, originally acquired by the producers of "JAG," was seized from an airport in Victorville, where it was housed. The plane is owned by an El Mirage aviation company.
"The investigation has not uncovered any evidence that these planes have been plundered for parts by people with nefarious motives," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for ICE, "but the fact that they were not properly demilitarized certainly presents a potential vulnerability."
Federal officials fear that parts from any decommissioned F-14 could find their way onto the worldwide black market, Barnett stated in his affidavit, adding that "Iran is the only nation to still have the F-14 in its active fleet."
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said no one had been charged but said the investigation was continuing. "There are some issues related to statute of limitations, and we're examining those issues."
Defense Department officials have determined that the F-14s should have been destroyed by an authorized contractor when they were taken out of military service between 1996 and 1998, according to the affidavit.
Instead, the officer in charge of demilitarizing the planes "improperly and without authority" released three of them to an Oxnard company, California Public Recycling, for disposal as scrap metal, even though the parts that made up the fighter jet were specifically barred from release to scrap metal recycling programs, the federal court document alleged.
Marc Keenberg, a consultant to California Public Recycling, confirmed that the company received several military airplanes at that time but described them as "already in scrap condition."
Keenberg said the recycling company sold the planes to another scrap yard and lost track of them after that.
The producer of "JAG," said his company went through proper military channels when it acquired the retired F-14.
"They didn't sell us one. They gave us one, and they removed the engines," said Don Bellisario, whose company now produces the military drama "NCIS." "The Navy said to us, 'We can give you an old aircraft, but we have to demil [demilitarize] it before we can give it to you.' I just assumed that's what happened."
The Navy also "broke its back," meaning that the F-14's fuselage was sliced in half and then welded back together, Bellisario said. Unable to fly, the jet was used as a prop for shots on the ground and had to be towed around, he said.
That plane in 2005 was sold to the company Aviation Warehouse in El Mirage, which was storing the F-14 at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville.
Mark Thomson, president of Aviation Warehouse, said the company also bought the other three F-14s for $5,000 apiece from a middleman, who was facilitating the sale for California Public Recycling in Oxnard. They later were sold to the Yanks airplane museum in Chino for $50,000 apiece, Thompson said.
Thomson, 65 of Adelanto, said he was outraged by the seizure of the planes and plans to fight the government's actions.
"When I bought the planes, everything was 100% totally legal and aboveboard," said Thomson, whose company provides props for movie television productions.
During the 17-month investigation, former Navy Chief Warrant Officer Mark Holmes told authorities that his Point Mugu unit — known as VX-9 Detachment — handled the sale of fighter jets. He said one of his superiors instructed him to contact scrap dealers to see if they were interested in "picking up F-14s for scrap," according to the court affidavit.
Holmes said the officer in charge set the price for the aircraft between $2,000 and $4,000. The checks for the planes were placed into a fund identified as the VX-9 Morale Welfare and Recreation fund, the affidavit stated.
There was no documentation of the sales or papers showing that the planes had been demilitarized, federal officials said.
Navy officials said referred all questions to the U.S. attorney's office and said they were cooperating with the investigation.
Federal officials are dismantling the planes and will ship them to a military yard in Tucson for storage and "final demilitarization."
==========================
4 F-14s seized at Southland airports
The fighter jets were not properly demilitarized and their sale was improper, officials say.
By Maeve Reston and Garrett Therolf
Times Staff Writers
March 7, 2007
Federal agents seized four F-14 Tomcat fighters in San Bernardino County on Tuesday — three from airplane museums — after investigators determined that the jets were not demilitarized and were improperly sold or transferred to private companies, including the producer of the TV show "JAG," authorities said.
When the jets were retired in the mid-1990s at the Naval Air Station at Point Mugu, Navy officials failed to ensure that the aircraft were stripped of military hardware, according to a court affidavit filed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Three of the fighter jets then were sold, in "unauthorized deals," to an Oxnard scrap company for $4,000 or less apiece, and one was acquired as a prop for the military drama "JAG," according to the affidavit and federal officials.
The proceeds from the sales went to a Morale Welfare and Recreation Fund for a squadron at the Ventura County naval base, according to the federal affidavit, filed by ICE Special Agent Joshua Barnett.
On Tuesday, customs agents and officials with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service seized two of the fighters from the Yanks Air Museum and one from the Planes of Fame air museum, both at the Chino Airport. Investigators learned about the F-14s during an undercover sting operation when they were investigating the potential sale of jet fighter parts to Iran, according to the affidavit.
A fourth jet, originally acquired by the producers of "JAG," was seized from an airport in Victorville, where it was housed. The plane is owned by an El Mirage aviation company.
"The investigation has not uncovered any evidence that these planes have been plundered for parts by people with nefarious motives," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for ICE, "but the fact that they were not properly demilitarized certainly presents a potential vulnerability."
Federal officials fear that parts from any decommissioned F-14 could find their way onto the worldwide black market, Barnett stated in his affidavit, adding that "Iran is the only nation to still have the F-14 in its active fleet."
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, said no one had been charged but said the investigation was continuing. "There are some issues related to statute of limitations, and we're examining those issues."
Defense Department officials have determined that the F-14s should have been destroyed by an authorized contractor when they were taken out of military service between 1996 and 1998, according to the affidavit.
Instead, the officer in charge of demilitarizing the planes "improperly and without authority" released three of them to an Oxnard company, California Public Recycling, for disposal as scrap metal, even though the parts that made up the fighter jet were specifically barred from release to scrap metal recycling programs, the federal court document alleged.
Marc Keenberg, a consultant to California Public Recycling, confirmed that the company received several military airplanes at that time but described them as "already in scrap condition."
Keenberg said the recycling company sold the planes to another scrap yard and lost track of them after that.
The producer of "JAG," said his company went through proper military channels when it acquired the retired F-14.
"They didn't sell us one. They gave us one, and they removed the engines," said Don Bellisario, whose company now produces the military drama "NCIS." "The Navy said to us, 'We can give you an old aircraft, but we have to demil [demilitarize] it before we can give it to you.' I just assumed that's what happened."
The Navy also "broke its back," meaning that the F-14's fuselage was sliced in half and then welded back together, Bellisario said. Unable to fly, the jet was used as a prop for shots on the ground and had to be towed around, he said.
That plane in 2005 was sold to the company Aviation Warehouse in El Mirage, which was storing the F-14 at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville.
Mark Thomson, president of Aviation Warehouse, said the company also bought the other three F-14s for $5,000 apiece from a middleman, who was facilitating the sale for California Public Recycling in Oxnard. They later were sold to the Yanks airplane museum in Chino for $50,000 apiece, Thompson said.
Thomson, 65 of Adelanto, said he was outraged by the seizure of the planes and plans to fight the government's actions.
"When I bought the planes, everything was 100% totally legal and aboveboard," said Thomson, whose company provides props for movie television productions.
During the 17-month investigation, former Navy Chief Warrant Officer Mark Holmes told authorities that his Point Mugu unit — known as VX-9 Detachment — handled the sale of fighter jets. He said one of his superiors instructed him to contact scrap dealers to see if they were interested in "picking up F-14s for scrap," according to the court affidavit.
Holmes said the officer in charge set the price for the aircraft between $2,000 and $4,000. The checks for the planes were placed into a fund identified as the VX-9 Morale Welfare and Recreation fund, the affidavit stated.
There was no documentation of the sales or papers showing that the planes had been demilitarized, federal officials said.
Navy officials said referred all questions to the U.S. attorney's office and said they were cooperating with the investigation.
Federal officials are dismantling the planes and will ship them to a military yard in Tucson for storage and "final demilitarization."