Hi,

I have been reading abt the AIM-54 retirement.(I know it is a bit late but bare with me). WHat I want to know is whether there has been any confrmed kills with the missile during anytime of it service or has it even been fired on in service (at an enemy aircraft.... not training)?

No, the AIM-54 was never fired in anger (at least not by the US); all F-14 air-to-air victories (including the engagement off the northern coast of Libya in 1981) have been accomplisdhed by either the AIM-7 Sparrow or AIM-9 Sidewinder. The only thing an AIM-54 has ever actually shot down (that we know of) are drones.

Irag had a stock of old AIM-54A Phoenix missles for the F-14A's they bought from us back in 1976, but they used them all during the Iran/Irag war in '81; there are no records of any confirmed Iranian kills, but one can assume the Phoenix did it's job and took out at least a few Iraqi aircraft.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SoD_Stitch,

Actually, you have the Iran/Iraq thing backward.

...and yes, there are records of AIM-54 kills by the IRIAF.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_210.shtml

Thanx, IguanaKing . . .

Yeah, when i wrote it, I couldn't tell where to put the "Iraq" part and where to put the "Iran" part, so I probably did get it backwards; I'll edit my post.

And, no, I did not know the Iranians had scored against the Iraqis (Mig-21's?), I just assumed the Phoenix performed well.

Yup, the first was in 1980. The IRIAF also scored a few kills against VVS (Soviet Air Force) aircraft...I don't remember if any of those were with the AIM-54 though.

quote:

Originally posted by IguanaKing:
Yup, the first was in 1980. The IRIAF also scored a few kills against VVS (Soviet Air Force) aircraft...I don't remember if any of those were with the AIM-54 though.

What aircraft was the Russkies flying? Mig-25's?

Yup, MiG-25R and MiG-25RBS...the two at the top. There used to be a few others on that list, but they're gone now. ACIG must have determined that those reports were false. That's what I like about that site, they are always updating their information when new details become available.

quote:

Originally posted by IguanaKing:
Yup, MiG-25R and MiG-25RBS...the two at the top. There used to be a few others on that list, but they're gone now. ACIG must have determined that those reports were false. That's what I like about that site, they are always updating their information when new details become available.

Okay, so they were full-on recon variants with the upgraded Tumanski R-15BD-300 engines. Cool! I heard the -25RBS also had the capability to carry air-to-ground ordnance. True?

A quick glance in that database one can see KIA attached to many AIM54 hits just as it seems SAM hits it appear also create some KIA. So, getting hit by a AIM54 feel like getting hit by a SAM? Seems reasonable since it was made to destroy bombers .....

Thanks guys. I have heard that the each AIM-54 cost a million US$. So if it didnt do naything it would be hell of a waste.....

but, why havent the the US ever used it in combat?

quote:

Originally posted by karadi:
but, why havent the the US ever used it in combat?

No reason to, or the situation wasn't quite right. The few engagements that US F-14s were involved in were flown in certain ROEs as to require a form of visual ID; the range at which the good 'ol AIM-54 works at is far outside the VID range of the TCS, so it's a no-go.
It was designed for use against hordes of Soviet bombers, i.e. the Missileer concept - as that didn't happen, the Phoenix wasn't used much. As for it's use in Iran/Iraq, I have no idea what conditions those were fired under.

quote:

Originally posted by De_Gopher:

quote:

Originally posted by karadi:
but, why havent the the US ever used it in combat?

No reason to, or the situation wasn't quite right. The few engagements that US F-14s were involved in were flown in certain ROEs as to require a form of visual ID; the range at which the good 'ol AIM-54 works at is far outside the VID range of the TCS, so it's a no-go.
It was designed for use against hordes of Soviet bombers, i.e. the Missileer concept - as that didn't happen, the Phoenix wasn't used much. As for it's use in Iran/Iraq, I have no idea what conditions those were fired under.

I can't imagine Iran was too concerned with what they were shooting at, just that it was an unidentified high-speed target approaching their airspace; that was probably enough of a reason right there. My guess is the range was around +/- 50 miles, so it was definitely BVR. The Phoenix wasn't much good at anything <20 miles due to it's flight profile.

I'm sorry, but a few AIM 54 have been fired by US tomcats during the operation against Iraq. I don't remember the exact details except they didn't record a kill.

Nic