California Businessman Indicted For Trying To Sell F-4 Phantom Components To Iran

The US Department of Justice announced on August 14 that a Californian man has been charged for selling F-4 Phantom II components to arch-rival Iran. Before the Iranian revolution of 1979, Iran was one of the staunchest US allies in the region, and the US supplied Iran with some of its most advanced equipment of the time – including F-14 Tomcats and F-4 Phantom IIs. Since then, Iran has been cut off from US weapons and support and has been forced to find alternative ways to keep its jets flying (including by reverse engineering parts and purchasing parts on the black market).