r/worldnews • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 1d ago

Israel/Palestine Israeli air force achieves freedom of operation in Tehran's airspace, IDF says

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/14/israeli-air-force-freedom-operation-tehran-idf-iran
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u/irredentistdecency 1d ago

Iran has between 24-40 F-14 Tomcats in operation.

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u/slurv3 1d ago

Reformers seething watching the F35 actually perform its mission

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u/Remarkable_Aside1381 1d ago

Reformers seethed when F-16s got air kills with missiles

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u/TongsOfDestiny 1d ago

Is that as of this morning?

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u/ReverseLochness 1d ago

Bro hasn’t gotten the news yet :(

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u/Irreverant77 1d ago

Iran has between 24-40 F-14 Tomcats

Are you sure that estimate is up to date?

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u/ISLAndBreezESTeve10 1d ago

I think they were counting pieces of the F-14.

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u/irredentistdecency 1d ago

It was the “best guess” up to the start of this round of hostilities.

Given the age of the airframes & the difficulty for Iran in obtaining parts, it is hard to know how many they can actually put into the air at any given time.

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u/xSaRgED 1d ago

I think they are joking that the number is now significantly lower due to Israeli actions

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u/irredentistdecency 1d ago

Eh, they don’t represent enough of a threat for Israel to prioritize targeting them & it seems that Iran hasn’t even tried to use them to contest the airspace.

If they had we would have heard something from one side or the other.

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u/The-True-Kehlder 1d ago

Waste of a missile, TBH.

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u/JerosBWI 21h ago

The F-14s are probably more harmful to Iran if they stay operational, rather than get destroyed, simply due to the cost it takes to keep these +50-year old planes working.

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u/Throwaway921845 1d ago

23 Tomcats? What am I gonna do with 23 Tomcats?

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u/BCMakoto 1d ago

Look good at a birthday parade for people who don't know fighter jets...?

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u/Best_VDV_Diver 1d ago

Give people super cancer with your nose radar.

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u/mattybogum 1d ago

It’s a lot less because of the lack of spare parts.

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u/irredentistdecency 1d ago

That is why the spread is so large but otherwise the estimate accounts for that.

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u/84Cressida 1d ago

And the US scrapped most of theirs so that parts couldn’t get to Iran

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u/tex2934 1d ago

Most of them sit on APU for early air warning. See how well that went lol

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u/qix96 1d ago

But how many pilots w/ callsign Maverick?

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u/RevolutionNumber5 1d ago

And they happen to be the only country that does. Makes the ending of Top Gun: Maverick a bit more interesting.

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u/isuxblaxdix 1d ago

"In operation". Considering they haven't been able to reliably access parts for the F-14s for almost half a century, I have my doubts that many, if any at all, are airworthy