latest on Iranian F-14s by Tom Cooper - Iran-Israel war 2025

 

Day 2 of the Iran-Israel war 2025 and Tom Cooper has written a neat blog post on Iranian F-14s. Of the 79 Tomcats originally delivered, there were still some 60-odd in service during the 1980s and this figure had gradually declined to around barely one dozen still flying operationally in 2025. Two machines were last seen 'in action' during a US drone incursion during March 2025 and now, following Israeli strikes, there are 'rumours' that more F-14s have been destroyed...Tom's 'substack' blog is here

Also on this blog;

Fazlollah Javidnia  IRIAF F-14A Tomcat ace with AIM-54

Operation Spider's Web - Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian airfields

 

Breaking: Ukrainian drones are attacking two Russian strategic bomber bases thousands of kilometers from Ukraine.

There are reports on damage to aircraft and infrastructure.

Photo/video #1-2 show Olenya airbase in Murmansk Oblast about 2,000 km from Ukraine,
#3-4 Belaya in… pic.twitter.com/jWoR0Cd9uk

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 1, 2025

The more you read about this operation the more incredible it appears -  117 drones transported -by duped Russian drivers in special containers - to within close proximity to four widely dispersed Russian long-range aviation bases and then commanded - via the Soviet's own telecoms networks -  to go and seek out some of the Russian strategic bomber force, potentially wiping out up a third of it. A master-stroke of asymmetric warfare. According to Ukraine's SBU security service the 01 June 25 drone attacks on four of Russia's long-range aviation hit :

34% of strategic carriers of cruise missiles at the main airfields of the Russian Federation .

34% hit claim by Ukraine= ~44–48 aircraft damaged or destroyed. 

Estimated total Russian strategic bomber fleet: ~130–140 cruise missile-capable bombers.

 
Tu-95MS: ~50–60 total (22–27 active; some reports mention 45 older variants).

Tu-160: Fewer than 20 operational.

Tu-22M3: ~60 in service (40 recently observed at Olenya airbase).

Russian Bomber Losses from Ukrainian Strikes

Tu-95MS Strategic Bombers
Dec 2022 (Engels-2): At least 1 damaged
Apr 2024 (Engels-2): 3 bombers hit
Jun 2025 (Operation “Spider’s Web”): Included among 40+ aircraft hit (exact number unspecified)
Minimum confirmed: 5 x Tu-95M

Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers
Dec 2022 (Dyagilevo): At least 1 damaged
Aug 2023 (Soltsy): 1 destroyed
Jun 2025 (Operation “Spider’s Web”): Included among 40+ aircraft hit (exact number unspecified)
Minimum confirmed: 2 x Tu-22M3

Many of the Tupolevs in the drone footage appear to have literally piles of rubber tyres distributed across their upper surfaces. Is this to tell US satellites they're unserviceable or similar?  If so, then the Ukranians have wasted their time on a few of these decrepit airframes.  Or do they disrupt radio waves or similar? 

Edit - it seems that the tyres are to break up the outline of the aircraft so that the drone can not recognise it as a target.....but then that doesn't make sense..these bases were 1000s of kms from Ukraine. They weren't expecting to be attacked by drones..

An assessment of  the losses as seen in the video footage was posted by Tom Cooper on his ACIG.INFO board

- 8 Tu-95MS, nearly all FMC-examples (or 'fully mission capable'). Including RF-94132/Voronezh, RF-94127/Vorkuta, RF-94257/Chelyabinsk (one of last two Tu-95MS' manufactured)... (two 'probables' are RF-94117/Izborsk, and RF-94120/Kozelsk). At least three loaded with Kh-101s (AFAIK, the Russians run out of Kh-555s).

- 13 Tu-22M-3: I would say: 2-3 haven't been flown in some time, but the rest is 'legitimate'.

- both of the A-50s which are old, stored airframes. This was a waste of effort.

Still, now it can be said that this is nearly '100% of FMC-part' of the Tu-95MS-fleet, and something like 50% of all the Tu-22M-3s 'still operational as of the last two years' (i.e. well beyond the '30% of the Russian bomber fleet', originally claimed by the SBU).

...and the destruction of (at least) some 6-12 Kh-101s is also 'great news', because the Russians have major problems just with trying to make these. So, this attack blew up 'quite a stock': something like 'half a month of air strikes on Ukraine'. 

summary above by Tom Cooper

A few additional observations regarding the recent strike on Russia’s strategic aviation assets may help clarify its scale and implications.

Our team currently assesses the operational strength of the Russian strategic bomber fleet to be approximately 70 to 90 aircraft. A… pic.twitter.com/wF6UPGCdTZ

— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) June 3, 2025

latest issue Le Fana de l'Aviation June 2025 - the first Mirage delta

 

 On my other blogs the French aviation press gets good coverage,especially given that noted author Jean-Louis Roba writes regularly for both 'Avions' and 'Aerojournal'  -  time to devote more coverage to that other regular on French news stands, 'Le Fana de l'Aviation'. A preview of coverage reposted from Le Fana's own site...current issue features the Mirage I  - 'Dassault's master-stroke'. The first flight of a 'Mirage' with delta configuration took place on 25 June 1955. Engines were British Vipers.

editorial Air Britain's 'Aeromilitaria' 4/1975

 

Issue 4/75 " ..How many times have we all heard the statement "I'm only interested in " (fill in your own peculiar subject)? A quick look through any Air-Britain questionnaire brings to light members dedicated to a wide variety of highly-specialised subjects. Some even apologise for not having a highly-specialised interest! In the field of aviation history, one salient fact emerges. As time goes by, few people keep to their original narrow subject to the exclusion of everything else. Someone with no interest in World War One aviation can become intrigued by the background to those far-off days. Usually such lack of interest is due to the general feeling that the Royal Flying Corps and its contemporaries were amateurish organisations flying whatever aircraft they could lay hands on, as and when they could get into the air - a sort of "limp-handkerchief" technology (if it moves it's too windy to fly). When one looks closer at the RFC (and later the RAF) in World War One, the organisation required to maintain a very large air force in action is strikingly similar to that set up in World War Two. There were operational training units, flying training schools, specialised maritime, fighter and bomber schools and flying instructors schools. In the UK, there were coastal reconnaissance and defensive fighter squadrons as in World War Two and by the Armistice there was a sizeable equivalent of Bomber Command being organised at British bases. All these required a large number of aircraft and airfields and a major organisation in the shape of factories, acceptance and repair units and construction teams. Although airfield construction was not as elaborate as in World War Two, due to the lack of concrete runways and dispersals, many stations were of permanent character and a fair number of buildings of that era still exist to this day. Once one has accepted that the current organisation of an air force goes back sixty years, then one's interest tends to become retrospective. The theory has been put forward that such interest in the past is a result of nostalgia for remembrances of one's youth - which makes your editors very youthful-looking 80-year-olds. It is this potential change in interests which governs publications like AM. One does not throw away the parts which are not of immediate interest. One files them and in ten years time perhaps they become the basis for a new interest. We would like to think that some of the odder items may have started a few members off into pastures new. One of the fascinations of aviation history is that there are so many facets to a single subject which have all been concentrated into one lifetime. As aviation does not operate in a historical (or geographical) vacuum, interest can stray to other fields - military and naval history, for example. Unfortunately, we tend to lose people that way. Nevertheless, the diversions can add immeasurably not only to one's hobby but to the understanding of the background to recent history. So the moral is - keep your paperwork filed away, you never know when you may want it. And to those who want to know how one keeps track of it all for thirty years, please don't write to us as we have never found out. However, why should we always have to file paper? The next twenty years might see a revolution in information storage and distribution. After all, the Egyptians were using paper three thousand years ago so it is time someone thought of something different. They have. It's called microfilm..."

Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum's Zero flies

 

" The Zero has flown! Guided into the air by Museum Chief Pilot Mike Spalding, our Zero took flight today for the first time since World War II. Watch out for more images and information in the coming hours, but for the moment - join us in congratulating the team at Legend Flyers, and in celebrating a key milestone for our collection!.."

9th AF P-47 -ebay photo find #123

 

PASSED BY THE CENSOR NORI7305. 

" ..THEY ARE PAVING THE WAY FOR INVASION. HAMMERING THE CHANNEL COAST DEFENCES IN DAY- LONG BOMBING RAIDS, THE U.S. NINTH AIR FORCE, UNDER BRIG-GEN. ERGUESADA, OF WASHINGTON, D.C., IS NOW PERFECTING THE TACTICS NECESSATY TO GIVE COMPLETE SUPPORT TO GROUND FORCES IN THE COMING INVASION. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO SHOWS: A QUINTET OF THUNDERBOLT PILOTS OF THE 'US. NINTH AIR FORCE WHO ARE NOW HAMMERING AT HITLER'S COASTAL DEFENCES..."

LEFT TO RIGHT:

 CAPTS Ε.Η. SPRIETSMA, OF RIVERSIDE, ILL; 

 LT, PD. FLOYD. OF NEW BOSTON, OHIO 

 EARL A. CABE, of CANTON, NORTH CAROLINA ,

 LT. J.B. WESTWOOD LEWIS KANSAS 

 Lt M.C. Peterson Santa Monica Calif.

"Jeju Air Flight 2216 came in like a glider.." - B737-800 crash Muan airport South Korea

 

.. a shocking tragedy, 179 killed while on the ground. Most reports focusing on the 'concrete' ILS transponder 'wall' off the end of the runway, presumably because reporters know something about brick walls - they certainly know little about the B737. If I hear another Sky News reporter say that the 'landing gear' was not working....

There's only one logical explanation for that B737 to come in and attempt a 'crash' landing in the configuration that it did. The airliner came in like a glider and put down on its belly ..because it was glider. The landing gear on the B737 does not fail - it can be deployed manually by pulling on the three long cables behind the seats in the cockpit. The glider 'theory' obviously presumes that neither engine was developing full thrust; after all the B737 can operate reasonably comfortably on one engine and redundancy is such that one engine can power most nearly all of the systems. Coming in as a glider though immediately poses other problems, horribly evident on watching the video footage - the ground effect meant that the aircraft 'floated' along the runway ..and put down far too long. With the airliner flying like a glider, the landing gear and flaps could not be deployed - minimal drag configuration was perhaps the only way the crew could stand a chance of getting back to the runway.  The other possibility, as mentioned by Juan Brown on his Blancolerio channel - given the elapse of only 7 minutes from birds strike to touch-down - is that the crew didn't have time to run through any check list and failed to deploy the gear. That doesn't bear thinking about. And from what the commentator below says (Max Afterburner channel) in this 'NO-TIME' scenario, the crew didn't/wouldn't/couldn't run through their emergency check-list that includes gear down where a decision has to be taken immediately. I used to hate check-lists. Although they exist and you could consult them, in a real emergency you simply don't have the time to consult them - you need to know them! (all 100 pages of the emergency procedures section!) The crew fought to keep the machine airborne for as long as possible, that is the only explanation that fits what we have seen. With the tragic consequences we have all witnessed. A single click to view the video here..

Getty Images slide-show courtesy of Getty Images for non-commercial websites

Embed from Getty Images

Fall of Assad's regime December 2024 - more pictures of the remnants of the Syrian Arab Air Force from Syria

 

More pictures from Syria from Getty Images using their 'slideshow' embed feature available for non-commercial web sites. First picture shows a Soviet 'Reys' drone

Embed from Getty Images

No doubt a long derelict MiG 21 (note how faded the tailfin flag is) extracted from a brief  (1:04 min) Al Jazeera video from a wrecked al-Qusayr airbase..

SyAAF MiG 21bis in Qamishli AP - pic of the day #7

 

continuing the posts of Syrian Arab Air Force machines captured by insurgents during December 2024

SyAAF 2250 MiG-21bis in Qamishli AP

Assad regime falls December 2024 - recent pictures of the remnants of the Syrian Arab Air Force from Hama, Mezzeh, Al-Nayrab air bases

 

This blog last covered Hama air base in Syria via an RT news report back in 2017 here. The Syrian civil war seemed to have virtually ended between then and late November 2024, but outside of the large towns there were always areas of the country held by 'rebels' and effectively outside of Assad's control. But now, no doubt taking advantage of Russia's weakness and events elsewhere, Islamist  insurgents - what the Russians used to refer to as 'terrorists' and now call the 'armed opposition' - advanced on Homs taking Hama air base to threaten Damascus  in a rapid two-week offensive. Assad was forced to flee the country and claim asylum in Moscow. Russian influence in the region has suffered a huge setback - having invested huge resources in building up bases, especially the air force base at Latakia. Some recent photos of Hama air base have appeared on various on-line news feeds - along with several pictures of bombed-up MiG 21s that look like they may have been taken back in 2015-2017. Most of the wrecked MiGs in the recent pictures below look very much as though they were 'hangar 'queens' - propped up on piles of old tyres and missing key parts. The MiGs were delivered to Syria during the early 1980s - their airframes well past their useful lives were refurbished locally.

Syrian opposition fighters ride on a motorcycle past Syrian MiG 23s at the Al-Nayrab military airport after they took control of the facility in the outskirts of Aleppo, Dec. 2, 2024.

Below;  This SyAAF Gazelle (registration number 1313) was destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Mezzeh Air Base on 9 December 2024. The air base was targeted in an Israeli campaign to neutralise the assets of the Syrian Armed Forces following the takeover of the country by the insurgents. This picture was probably taken the previous day following the capture of Damascus and the collapse of the Assad's regime, 8 December 2024. Identifier number (Arabic numerals): 1313
Tail Code / Serial Number: 1621

Also on this blog;

Syrian 'Fitters' in action around Aleppo, 2017

Below; Getty Images slideshow for non-commercial web sites. 

Embed from Getty Images

2,000 hours at the controls of a Mirage IV - Cmdt François Dubreuil

Just posted on YT is this video on the Mirage IV. Starting his career in the Mystere, François Dubreuil, first flew the Mirage IV in 1975 and by the time of his last flight on the type in 1987 had accumulated nearly 2000 hours of flight time on the Mirage IV. Dubreuil knows this plane like the back of his hand and shares his 10 years of experience at the controls with us. Walking around the Mirage IV P number 11, François details its technical particularities - in-flight refueling, JATO takeoffs, the operation of the electric flight controls, the bombing profiles and the progress of a war mission....in the event that deterrence has failed.