Iraq air force wants Iran to give back its planes

[tigershark]

I think Iraq has no chance at all of ever getting back the fighters that were flown into Iran to avoid being destroyed.  I also think Iran air force is in bad shape and the fault lays with Iran's government leadership.   The new second Iranian fighter to me is pure internal PR to show the people how the government are producing modern aircraft.   The average Iranian has no idea how bad off their military is.   Giving back any aircraft to it's sword enemy will never happen and I'm sure those Iraqi Fulcrums are one of the few operational fighters Iran has.  I always rate Iran's capabilities too high this is a country that couldn't put Iraq away in eight plus years of fighting.   

The story I found
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSCOL54415720070805

[valkyrian]

I think that Iraq has every right to claim back  those fighters, after all they were paid with Iraqui's people money. But why do they claim them back now? Maybe the US wants to use this, to weaken te Iranian airforce (in those planes are some Mig-29s riight?)

I imagine an Iranian officer speaking to the phone with an Iraqui counterpart "....Mr Ali we will return you those planes immediatelly, but we are sorry for the moment, we don't remember were we have bury them...so can you take a shovel and come here to help us?"

[Webmaster]

LOL, it's silly. Iran probably won't give them back to this government. The current IqAF is not equipped to fly Soviet era combat planes in poor shape. Actually, according to Russian sources, the Iraqi pilots and crews were never real good at flying the Russian aircraft. Coalition fighters IFF will go crazy if they use them without modification. They have no means of cooperating with coalition aircraft. No support for training. The US won't fund the operation of most of these types, as it's too expensive, they are too uncapable.

I think the only reason they are asking them back, is because the US wants them out of Iranian hands!

Su-22... too old anyway
Su-25... Iran has overhauled and upgraded some ex-Iraqi Su-25 and returned them to service... there's no way they are getting these back.
Su-24... 24, Iran has also modified these for use in their own air force, they won't return them
MiG-23... too old
MiG-25... they mostly ended up in the desert I think, only handful to Iran...probably no longer airworthy
MiG-29... Iran has a strong need for air defense fighters, besides only 4 are said to have fled to Iran, hardly worth getting back.
Mirage F1... it's probably the only one they would really want back...24 of these were said to have fled to Iran, with Exocet capability. Not sure if they include those reportedly 8 Kuwaiti ones which were never returned. Also, I saw a lot of abandoned Mirage F1 photos... I reckon less than 24 made it to Iran. And I think because they are French with a French engine, they are of little use to Iran and not airworthy (haven't seen them anyway).

Sorry, but the only useful equipment to get back would be those Il-76.

But like I said, it's probably the US that want those Su-24 bombers, MiG-25 interceptors, Mirage F1 and MiG-29 fighters out of Iranian hands. Dream on. Just put some JDAMs on them when the need arises, or take them down with AMRAAMs.