the U.S. Navy destroyed most of its retired F-14s and their unique spare parts by shredding them to prevent Iran from acquiring them to keep its own aging F-14 fleet flying

Iran bought F-14s before the US puppet govt was ousted in 1979, and since then have desperately needed parts to maintain their planes after the U.S. sanctions, as their jets were crucial for air defense.

Iran has kept F-14s flying by reverse-engineered parts and cannibalizing junkyard planes

The Defense Department suspended sales of all F-14 parts after news reports in 2007 of buyers for Iran, China and other countries using the surplus-sale market to acquire F-14 parts from Pentagon auctions because the DOD intel was blind to the obvious

The Pentagon retired the F-14 in 2006 and the Arizona boneyard held 165 Tomcats, thought to be the only ones left out of 633 produced for the Navy. The others were scavenged for parts to keep others flying, went to museums or crashed

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shredding-f-14s-to-keep-parts-from-iran/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1273479824806364&set=a.638868294934190