Made the Tomhawk world famous: Tom Cruise in his star role as Lieutenant Pete Maverick Mitchell. Image: imago stock&people
The American F-14 “Tomcat” achieved cult status thanks to Hollywood. The U.S. warplane has had an astonishing afterlife in the ranks of the Iranian Air Force.
March 9, 2026, 6:39 p.mMarch 9, 2026, 6:39 p.m
It is the showdown of an iconic film sequel: Tom Cruise steals a dismantled F-14 jet from the enemy base and uses it to save the son of his pilot friend who once died in an accident. The ironic script twist from “Top Gun: Maverick” was already unmistakable as a swipe at Iran when it premiered in 2022.
Four years later, the fate of the legendary “Tomcat” seems to have been fulfilled in a way that is not very cinematic. In a dry statement, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday that it had hit Iranian F-14 fighter jets “at the Isfahan airfield.”
The F-14 Tomcat was considered a symbol of the Cold War – and was in use in Iran to this day.Image: www.imago-images.de
The attack was carried out to “expand air superiority over Iran”. According to the statement, control centers, radar systems and air defense positions that threatened Israeli aircraft were also bombed.
Images of the impacts have not yet been released. But if the report is confirmed, Israel’s air strike would have a special historical dimension: according to Western estimates, all of the Islamic Republic’s F-14s that were still operational were stationed in Isfahan. Analysts therefore believe it is likely that the last Tomcats still in service worldwide were destroyed or damaged on Sunday.
Symbol of Iranian perseverance
The F-14 is considered an icon of the Cold War, even reaching pop culture thanks to Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun” box office hit in 1986. The twin-engine, swing-wing interceptor was developed for the US Navy in the 1970s and decommissioned in 2006. Iran was the only export customer: Even under the Shah, Tehran ordered 80 machines, 79 were delivered from 1976.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the jets remained with the newly formed Iranian Air Force (IRIAF). Despite decades of sanctions, Iran managed to keep part of its fleet airworthy – a technical feat that was often seen in military circles as evidence of Iran’s ability to improvise and perseverance.
Despite isolation and sanctions, Iran managed to keep the F-14 fleet airworthy.Image: www.imago-images.de
Militarily, the F-14 may have had limited value in the age of modern stealth jets like the F-35. Symbolically, however, they were of great importance for the mullahs’ regime: as visible proof that Tehran can operate complex weapons systems for decades despite the embargo. As late as 2023, F-14 jets flew security missions during a visit by the Russian president to the Middle East.
How many machines were actually operational when the war broke out is controversial. Estimates were that there were around two to three dozen aircraft remaining. As early as June 2025, Israel had destroyed two parked, apparently no longer flyable F-14s in Tehran using a drone – an act that was primarily symbolic. Even back then it was said that these were the last F-14s.
The current attack in Isfahan, on the other hand, would be operationally far more drastic. The aviation scene is all too aware of the historical significance: “Maverick should have saved one of the machines as a museum piece,” writes one commentator wistfully in a forum post.
And as far as the F-35 is concerned: The US super plane ordered by Switzerland made aircraft history in the first week of the Iran War. After an Iranian YAK-140 jet was shot down, the type officially the first aerial victory awarded. (aargauerzeitung.ch)