Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Good evening Gentlemen

can anybody tell me the full names of the pilots

• Afkhami
• Adibi
• Agha
• Qiyassi

who fought for Iran in the Iran-Iraq War ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

It's really all on google: http://www.igleize.fr/aces/irairn.htm

LH

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Unveils the first names of Afkhami and Qiyassi.
But doesn't show the first names of Agha and Adibi.

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Thanks Leendert

I wasn't aware of that site! Interesting

Cheers
Stig

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Good evening Leendert and Stig,

the first name of Mr. Adibi is given a "Rassi", likely just a nickname.
Mohammad Hasem Alagha (Ale Agha) is not H Agha who scored three kills in 1987 and whom I look for.

Have a nice rest of the week,

Michael

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

...I conclude: Abbas Afkhami & Khosrow Adibi scored one kill each in 1984. H. Agha & Abbas Afkhami scored three kills each in 1987. I still need the given name of Mr. Agha....

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

This H.Agha looks a bit suspicious. Osprey "Iranian Tomcat Units in Combat" lists 3 Mirage F1s shot down by H.Agha in February 1987 but one has to be aware that this book is rather old and it is based on personal recollections and not official documents, so the claims from this book have to be taken with the grain of salt - according to the book, the Iran F-14s shot down around 30 "confirmed" and 10+ probable Iragi Mirages F1. Much more recent book "Iraqi Mirages" and US intelligence documents prepared for 1991 Gulf war estimate around 30 Mirage losses from al causes, at least 10 from air defence.
In February 1987, three Mirage F1s were shot down, two by F-14s (2.2. capt.Peyrovan, 16.2 capt.Aslani) and one by HAWK missile. It is possible that some of the claimed were only damaged, or that this "H.Agha" shot down some other aircraft. Also, I haven't found any other references for this pilot.

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hello Goran,

this website indicates an astonishing total of 130 kills by Iranian F-14's.
https://migflug.com/jetflights/the-c...rently-in-use/
I have acquired Osprey's "Iranian Tomcat Units in Combat" but haven't found the time, yet to work it through.
Did the Iranian authorities ever publish an official list of their aces ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Well, the story of Iranian F-14 operation is rather complex, so this post is a bit longer …

F-14 with AIM-54 was main Iranian air defense asset. Around 80 airframes were delivered before the war, although only around 20-30 were operational at any given time– main reason being the lack of spare parts (they had to be bought on black market and smuggled to Iran).

F-14 (and other) pilots were mostly loyal to Shah and were, after the islamic revolution, moved to some unimportant posts (at best), or purged from the AF, imprisoned, some even executed.

After the Iraqi invasion they were quickly recalled back - the Airforce and Army aviation Cobras were actually the main factors in stopping the Iraqis. But this didn’t look good to Islamic regime, and they tried to marginalize the “Shah pilots”. After the war, they officially credited most of the shot downs to IRGC (Pasdaran) air defense units (they were armed mostly with guns and MANPADS and have probably shot down more Iranian than Iraqi aircraft), officially crediting Air force with only 80 kills (out of estimated 220+). Few years after the war, the Iranian authorities also managed to “accidentally” destroy most of the air force archives. The Regime also cracked down on the plots that didn’t show enough revolutionary zeal – some were imprisoned, some escaped to the West and some died in freakish accident (like Jaleel Zandi).

The USA are not much better in this regard – while they probably have enough relevant intelligence information, they are still considering them top secret. Official US line during the war was, that F-14s were not operational for the lack of spare parts, AIM-54 were sabotaged by US technicians and if occasional F-14 was filmed flying, it was probably used as a mini AWACS.

Iraqi losses are also difficult to estimate, Iraq never published (or admitted) any kind of aircraft losses. Pilot losses are well known (they are still remembered and celebrated as heroes), while aircraft loses (where the pilot survived) were not reported by unit and base commanders. Some can be calculated from delivery documentation, Desert Shield losses and later losses and aircraft found in Iraq after US occupation, but the actual cause of loss is difficult to asses.

The Iranian F14 picture started to get clearer with the publication of Iran-Iraq War in the Air by Bishop and Cooper (Osprey’s Iranian F4 and F14 are spin-offs of this book). This book was just a first step and it is based on information known an available at that time, but still contains lot of myths, speculations and unsupported claims. The quantity and quality of available data have significantly improved since then.

One of the interesting documents that surfaced few years ago is a copy of aircraft munition expenditures (on this account https://twitter.com/LTmilad but it looks like twitter doesn't archive tweets from early 2022)


Below are AA missile expenditures from that list, with my “guesstimates” for kills
AIM-7E Sparrow (194 missiles expended): ~30 F4 + few F14
AIM-9 Sidewinder (269 missiles expended): 30 F4, 20 F5, 10 F14
AIM-54 Phoenix (201 missiles expended): 100-120 F14

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hello Goran,

thanks for your interesting post.
You mean Zandi's accident might not have been an accident after all ?
Did the Iranians ever attribute an official score to him (9 or 11) ?

Best greetings from Switzerland.

Michael

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hi Michael



According to some claims, circumstances were suspicious at least - his car was not moving when they were rammed by a truck, truck driver got away and was never found. After the accident ambulance hadn't arrived, so he and his wife were transported to the hospital by the family. Apparently, there was also some kind of confusion in the hospital, so he was left unattended until it was too late -I tried to find link (it was on some aviation forum) but I haven't found it yet (I read it like 10 years ago)



Score of 11 (or 12) was attributed to Zandi by Iranian AF command, he never claimed more than 9, (at least six of them were verified through Iraqi losses)


Regards, Goran

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hello Goran,

yes, this sounds suspicious.

Did the Iranian AF command ever issue a list of those whom they deemed aces ?

I just have started reading the Cooper/Bishop book.

Best greetings from Switzerland,
Michael

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

As far as I know there was no official list. There were some semi-official lists, published years after the war in different books and magazines, but the claims are not supported and differ wildly for certain pilots (F-4 pilot Aliyah Hoda was credited with 6, 9 or zero kills). Most often listed pilots, with up to 12 kills, were Zandi, Harandi and Rostami.


But it is quite possible that the "highest scoring ace" of IIRAF was not even a pilot - Brigadier Abbas Babaei, often flew as a "second seater" on F-14s, F-4s and F-5 two-seaters, with pilots, who were considered suspicious and disloyal to the islamist regime. Some accounts credit him with taking part in over 20 shot-downs.

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Good morning Goran,

I finished reading OSPREY's "Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat" which I liked quite much. The authors deal with this rather complicated topic in a very balanced and vivid manner. It seems as if the islamic regime undercredited the air kills of their pilots for some crooked political reasons.

On p79 Jalil Zandi is indicated as having scored 9 confirmed+3 probable kills (and having died from a heart failure). However, the kill list on p85-88 indicates 11 as does Wikipedia:

1. 15May81 MiG-21
2. ?Jan82 MiG-21
3. 10 Oct82 MiG-23
4. 10 Oct82 MiG-23
5. ?Sep83 Su-22
6. ?Sep83 Su-22
7. ?Apr86 MiG-23
8. ?Apr86 MiG-23
9. 29Aug87 Mirage
10. ?Feb88 Mirage
11. ?Feb88 Mirage

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

I can comment only the Mirage losses - number of delivered aircraft is known and also most of the losses.


29/8/1987 might be a valid claim, IrAF Capt. Abdul Karim Muhammad Ahmed was killed on that day over Farsi island (attributed to SAM though)

But there is only one known Mirage loss in February 1988 -it was shot down on 7.2. by F-14 piloted by Capt. Khalili




Soviet aircraft are more difficult to asses, because there are no reliable delivery numbers and the Iraqi,s downplayed their losses.


For example Razoux estimates 82 Iraqi Mig-23 losses, while on the other hand Iraqis admit "only" 45 losses - 38 FB versions and 5 interceptors, although it is known that the latter were much more involved in combat and there were quite high losses among their pilots.



I hope that more would be known in this regard when 3rd part of Miloš Šipoš' "Wings of Iraq" will be published

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hello Goran,

what's your opinion about Fazlollah Javidnia and Fereidoun Ali-Mazandarani ?

Have a good weekend,

Michael

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlollah_Javidnia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fereidoun_Ali-Mazandarani

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Hello michael


Both of these claims are from Razoux Iran-Iraq War. In the appendices at the and of the book there is a list of IRIAF pilots with 3 or more victories - names with 5 or more are below :


Javidnya 12
Zandi 11
Al-Mazandarani 9
Mehreganfar 6
Harandi 6
(+ Rostami, Khalili, Afshar, Moslemi, Sedghi and Toufanian with 5 victories)


Razoux book was published more than 10 years after the Cooper/Bishop F-14 book so I suppose that the information included were based on more research. Still, without any detailed information from both sides it is difficult to confirm (or deny) any of those numbers.

Re: Iran-Iraq War fighter pilots
 

Good morning Goran,

I think the notion that Zandi is the Iranian top ace with 11 kills is largely based on "Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat" by Cooper/Bishop (2004) but this book also lists more kills with unknown scorers than kills with known scorers. Razoux in "The Iran-Iraq War" (2015) confirmed Zandi's score and adds 12 for Javidnia and 9 for Ali-Mazandarani but confusingly four years later in "Le siècle des As (1915-1988): Une autre histoire de l'aviation" he reduces Zandi's score to 4+5probables and Javidnia's to 11+2probables while giving Ali-Mazandarani 11. I wonder what his sources were and why he changed his mind.

Have a good start into November,
Michael