Word: 14s
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...minutes later took off for Jacksonville with the 21 most seriously wounded crewmen. Then the reckoning of hardware destruction began: the incinerated Prowler, packed with ten jamming transmitters and computerized receivers, was a burned and twisted hulk, a $68 million loss; two of the $36 million F-14s were totaled, three others badly damaged; four A-7 Corsair II jet fighters were inoperative; ten other jets and a helicopter were less seriously banged or gashed or charred. The aggregate loss may be upwards of $150 million...
Official inquiries into the cause of the crash could take as long as six months, and the investigators will lack some evidence in their search for explanations: hours after the accident, the EA-6B and the two unsalvageable F-14s were pushed overboard. Captain John Batzler, the Nimitz's commanding officer, was authorized to jettison the three irreparable aircraft by Vice Admiral George E.R. Kinnear, Commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, who flew to the Nimitz hours after the crash. The wrecked fighters still carried their loads of unexploded missiles and ammunition, which posed a danger to ship...
...outlet for oil, the week before, the Iranians also launched repeated bombing raids against the refineries of Basra, the pumping stations around Kirkuk and Mosul, and the oil port of Fao at the mouth of Shatt al Arab. Tehran even sent a few of its sophisticated U.S.-made F-14s into the war; they were flown sparingly, but according to Iranian reports their Phoenix air-to-air missiles succeeded in downing more than a dozen Iraqi...
...them not only 188 Phantom F-4s and 166 F-5s but also 77 advanced F-14 interceptors. The principal problems with the planes as well as with the Iranian navy and ground forces: lack of maintenance and spare parts. According to Western analysts, only eight of the F-14s were airworthy and one-third of the army's 875 British-built Chieftain tanks were no longer serviceable. Army manpower was down from about 240,000 under the Shah to an estimated 180,000 as a result of desertions and purges; 250 generals had been replaced by inexperienced officers...
...Pentagon's censors are too clever by half. Or by whole. Take this excerpt from the transcript of closed-door testimony on the 1981 defense budget that was released after sensitive information had been snipped out by the Defense Department: "On Jan. 14, there were 110 F-14s at Miramar [a naval air station near San Diego]. Of these aircraft, a total of [deleted] F-14s, or 47%, were classified as mission capable. The remaining [deleted] F-14s, or 53%, were grounded for parts and maintenance...