Pentagon Sells F-14 Spare Parts as Surplus--Guess Which Country Is The Only Country Flying The F-14

Let us take a trip down memory lane. Remember the movie epic Top Gun. Tom Cruise and his playmate fighter aces flying fancy F-14 fighter jets and taking on the middle eastern bad guys. The aircraft pictured is the F-14 Tomcat used in that movie.

Strolling a little further down memory lane, remember the Shah of Iran. Remember Jimmy Carter. Remember the Iranian Revolution. Well, just before the revolution the Shah of Iran took delivery of a flock of 79 F-14 Tomcats. At the time of the revolution all of the Tomcats were sabotaged. Because of an arms embargo we imposed on spare parts, the Iranians haven't been able to properly repair their F-14's and they have been virtually worthless since. Score one for the good guys.

A contemporary of the F-15 Eagle and extraordinarily capable, the aircraft was very expensive to maintain. The F/A 18 Super Hornet performs the same job for less money. Recently the U.S. Navy retired the F-14 from service.

The AP is reporting that the Pentagon recently sold a bunch of F-14 parts as surplus on the open market. There is only one market for those surplus parts. Any guesses? Any admirals going to lose their stars?