US destroying F14 Tomcat to stop auctioned parts reaching Iran
Published July 5th, 2007
The Pentagon plans to destroy its dozens of retired F-14 fighter jets to deny Iran a source for spare parts. Last month, a contractor finished the first phase of the effort, shredding roughly two dozen.
It suspended sales of all F-14 parts after the Associated Press reported in January that buyers for Iran, China and other countries had exploited gaps in surplus-sale security to acquire sensitive U.S. military gear, including F-14 parts.
Among other tactics, middlemen for the countries misrepresented themselves to gain access to Defense Department auctions or bought sensitive surplus from U.S. companies that had acquired it from the Pentagon sales and weren’t supposed to allow its export.
Investigators also found some sensitive items accidentally slipping into surplus auctions rather than being destroyed as they were supposed to be.
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