Imperial Era
The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) was a branch of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces and was established by Reza Shah, the Shah of Iran, in 1920. It became operational with its first fully trained pilots on February 25, 1925. Iran's first attempt to procure aircraft from the United States in the 1920s failed due to Washington's refusal to supply equipment because of a World War I treaty. Until World War II, the IIAF's aircraft inventory consisted entirely of European (mainly British and German) aircraft. However, following a co-ordinated British and Soviet invasion of Iran during World War II in retaliation for Reza Shah's declaration of neurality, the IIAF's bases were occupied by the allies and all existing IIAF aircraft were either destroyed or dismantled by the invading British.
A roughly 1946 order of battle for the Air Force can be found in Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II. Two regiments were both reported to be based near Tehran. After World War II, the IIAF began to slowly rebuild its inventory, with mainly American and British supplied aircraft. A national, aerobatic display team was formed in 1958. Called "Golden Crown", and a part of the IIAF, this lasted until 1978. In the 1960s, the IIAF acquired 90 Canadair Sabre fighters from the RCAF, but they were flipped over to the Pakistan Air Force.
The IIAF deployed aircraft to Oman in the 1970s, when Iran provided military assistance to that country, during the Dhofar rebellion. During this conflict, one Iranian F-4 Phantom II was shot down by rebels.
Later, in the 1970s, the IIAF became the only military force other than the United States Navy, to be equipped with the F-14 Tomcat. Although after the 1979 Iranian revolution, some of these planes were not in working order due to a lack of necessary spare parts, because of an American arms embargo and damage sustained on the aircraft during the Iraqi invasion (Iran–Iraq War). Some were brought back in to service, due to localised production of reverse-engineered, Iranian-made, spare parts as well as "cannibalism" (the process of taking working parts from damaged aircraft and using them to repair others).
During this era, the USA instituted the 'Spellout', 'Peace Ruby' and 'Peace Net' programmes to improve/upgrade, the air-defence system of Iran. As well as air defence radars, the network was linked using microwave LOS and troposcatter communications networks.
The IIAF had also placed an order for over 150 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft in 1976, but deliveries were never made, due to the overthrow of the Shah by Ayatollah Khomeni in the revolution . These aircraft would go on to serve in the Israeli Air Force.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Iranian Air Force
Famous quotes containing the words imperial and/or era:
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)