The Shah Ordered 3,000 M60 Tanks and Got 460, Bought 225 F-4 Phantoms and the F-14 Tomcat, and Built the Fifth-Largest Air Force in the World Before the Islamic Revolution Cut It Off
Iran operates the world’s largest F-4 Phantom fleet, the remnant of 225 jets the Shah bought in the 1960s and ’70s in a buildup that made Iran’s air force the world’s fifth-largest. The F-4 Phantom II is a Cold War-era fighter jet and…