Zephyr Net

So in the spirit of making something new and though I retained Cuban Missile Crisis stuff, I'm going to pivot and start working on a shorter piece of LIB.
As the title says, it's going to be Iran in 1980. It would come before the Iran-Iraq War so basically that would never happen and I'd hate to think of us allying with Saddam's Iraq to fight Iran. Unlikely given Carter is POTUS and he had a thing for human rights.

The premise is that after Op Eagle Claw fails, the Ayatollah orders the execution of the hostages.
Obviously had they done that the United States would have unleashed some impressive fury on them.

We had 4 carriers in the AO in the early part of the year when Op Eagle Claw was going down (2 in the PG alone) and then another 1 in the Med.
Some highlights:

F-14A v. F-14A
SEAD against I-HAWK batteries in A-6s and A-7s with Shrikes and Standard ARMs (sorry folks no HARMs yet)
Escorting B-52Fs on bombing sorties against oil production facilities
Early model F-15As flying CAP against F-4s and F-5s (poor fellas)
Limited us of PGMs (we didn't use many in ODS and that was 1991)
Still using rear-aspect AIM-9s (because the AIM-9H really didn't get enough attention what with it coming so late in Vietnam)
AGM-65As and AGM-65Bs so less range, no IR
Terriers because no NTU yet

Thinking keeping it small. I envisioned 25 missions on CMC.
Maybe I do fewer here and not make it into a campaign like CMC was but rather just a mission set.
Probably going to be a mix of flying from the USN carriers and an AF base in Saudi Arabia or UAE, whichever is on the map.
-- Let's face it this is 1980 and no one is going to refuse the US basing if Iran just killed our hostages, god help them if they did

_________________
Centurian

Starting some notes (add if you see something off):

Iranian Air Power (est)
32x F-4D
177x F-4E
16x RF-4E
80x F-14A
166x F-5E & F-5F
15x RF-5A
6x P-3F
CH-47C Chinook
81x 4x Boeing 707
6x Boeing 747
12x Fokker F27s
27x C-130E/H
202x AH-1J (62 = TOW capable)

Iranian AAMs
AIM-54A
AIM-7E-2 (F-4D/E only)
AIM-7E-4 (F-14A only)
AIM-9J
AIM-9P

Iranian AGMs
AGM-45A/B
AGM-65A
AGM-65B (maybe?)
AGM-71A TOW (likely)
Mark 80 series
Vietnam-era CBUs?

Iranian SAMs
MIM-23B I-HAWK



US Stuff

Coral Sea
F-4N (USMC)
A-7E
A-6E
KA-6D
E-2B
RF-8G
SH-3G

Nimitz
F-14A
A-7E
A-6E
KA-6D
RF-8G
EA-6B
S-3A
SH-3H
E-2B
RH-53D
EA-3B
C-2A

Air Force
A-7D
A-10A
AC-130A/E/H
F-4C/D/E
F-15A/B
(No F-16A Block 1, IOC too late - shame!!!!)
RF-4C
F-4G Wild Weasel
F-101B (technically they had 77 in FY80 but yeah no role here)
F-105D/F/G (on their way out)
F-106A/B (who wants air battles with AIM-4s? no one that's who)
F-111A/D/E/F
EF-111A (only 2 in service!)
E-3A
EC-130H
EC-135
MC-130
RC-135
KC-135A
C-5A
C-123
C-130
C-141
B-52D (on it's way out)
B-52G (conventional)
B-52H (nuclear)
FB-111A (nuclear)
HH-3
HH-53

USMC
AV-8A
AH-1J
OV-10A/D

USARMY (probably won't play a big role)
AH-1G
UH-1
UH-60A (super new)
CH-47A/B/C

US Weapons
AIM-4F/G (F-106 only)
AIM-7E-2
AIM-7E-4 (F-14 only)
AIM-7F (probably F-15A only)
AIM-9H (USN)
AIM-9J (USAF)
AIM-9L
AIM-54A
FIM-43 (SAM only)
RIM-2
MIM-23B I-HAWK
RIM-24 (maybe)
RIM-66
RIM-67
MIM-72
M163 VADS


AGM-12C
AGM-45A/B
AGM-62
AGM-65A/B
AGM-69A (should we vaporize the Ayatollah? probably not likely but fun)
AGM-78B/C/D
BGM-71A/B TOW
Paveway II
Clusters
Mark 80s
Napalm (lots of napalm)

_________________
Centurian

Very interesting choice of aircraft, weapons, and other items for that era... The B-52F is also very interesting as it was retired from service in 1981 so any losses against Iran in 1980 wouldn't be felt by SAC... Should make your library a fun one to fly!

Curious why no F-15C/Ds. They had begun replacing F-15A/Bs in USAF service from 1978 when first C model was delivered...

The older jets you listed, like the F-101s, F-105s, & F-106s were all Air National Guard and were not in the USAF by 1980. The Air National Guard took over all these types during the 1970s when the production of the F-15 began and older F-4s could be passed to USAF units to replace them. Same for the Falcon missile, exclusively being used on the F-101 and F-106...

Wish I could give yo a thumbs up but no option for it here on the forums...

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Yeah I've been culling the list between ANG and USAF in there.

So here's some things I ran across:

• B-52F: The last B-52Fs were retired to storage between August and December of 1978. per Joe Baugher so just sticking with B-52D Big Belly with an M117 loadout and the B-52G with a Mark 82 loadout
• F-111A: Looks like they were all in the EF-111A upgrade program so none to be see but that's fine we have the other F-111s
• F-111D: Seems like they wouldn't have been used for whatever reason so we're left with F-111E/F
• F-111E: Will fly with a default iron loadout
• F-111F: Will fly with GBU-10s but since the PAVE TACK wasn't in service until 1982 it'll have a "BUDDY LASE" option and I'm going to have F-4D/E do the lasing for them with the PAVE SPIKE
• No Nukes: I just doubt they'd be used so I'm not going to include any
• F-15C/D: So looking into these, it seems like the first F-15C/Ds were only just coming into service in 1979 and not really delivered to most squadrons until the early 1980s pushing the F-15A/B down to the ANG so I'm going to use the F-15As instead since they would have been much more "front line" available
• Culling: Yep so no F-101s, F-105s, F-106s in this one and I'm skipping a lot of the tertiary planes too like the cargo transports (except the ones Iran uses), EA-3Bs, S-3As, RH-53s, C-2s
• F-4 Phantom ECM: So this has been basically what I spent hours on tonight. It looks like the F-4B/J received the SHOEHORN mod to have 2x ALE-29 (60 slots) and the various ALQ-51/100/126 (which carried over to the F-4N/S) but the USAF didn't stick any chaff/flare or internal ECM into the F-4C/D or RF-4C just carried some ECM pods; the F-4E got some ALE-40s (4 dispensers with a 60 chaff / 30 flare load) which carried over to the F-4G but still no internal ECM --- now I could have swore the USAF put some dispensers on the F-4C/D but damn if I can't find any info whatsoever I think they just carried the noise pods to twart the SA-2s and then never bothered to update them so flying an F-4D into combat is going to be hairy, pull those Gs and beam those missiles since the ANG didn't get their F-4D/Es until the mid to late 80s after the F-15C/D and F-16A/B came screaming into force; now the RF-4C was in ANG but they still used them in ODS so they're flying here for some fun missions where you have to protect them from hostile F-4/F-5s

_________________
Centurian

Boeing shows the B-52F served until 1982...

If you like I can go thru my Janes volumes for these years and see what they have to say... I have everything. All the World's Aircraft, Radars, Avionics, etc from the 1940s to 2010...

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FAF/FA-2 Design team
TSH Member/Developer
VNFAWING.com Forum Administrator

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