Regarding the Iranian Tomcat and some points

2 hours ago, Raviar said:

The project failed on both launching HAWK missile and R-27

Didn't they manage to down one aircraft with the modified HAWK missiles though? Pretty sure it was a French aircraft (can't remember which one), had to use multiple missiles because at least one was a dud and never tracked anything.

2 hours ago, Zpigman said:

Didn't they manage to down one aircraft with the modified HAWK missiles though? Pretty sure it was a French aircraft (can't remember which one), had to use multiple missiles because at least one was a dud and never tracked anything.

you mean Mirage F-1, No
There is not any evidence of the shot/launch/kill, Although they carried and shot for test, however kill-confirm is in a ambiguity , Though the confirm resources known Jalil Zandi as Ace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalil_Zandi some iranian resources(highly related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps  such as https://www.ganjejang.com/ ) introduce Mazandarani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fereidoun_Ali-Mazandarani  with 15 and Javidnia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlollah_Javidnia with 14 kills which is not confirm and highly skeptical
https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/اف-۱۴_تام‌کت‌های_در_خدمت_ایران
which clearly there is not enough evidence and all websites (iranian and other) are referring to pilot interview it self which is not accepted by professionals! after death of Jalil Zandi an accident all AA kill confirm record started to be manipulated while the Zandi was/is the Confirm ace with 11 kills with no doubts, so dont trust what you hear or read in magazines, there is not a single reliable resource regarding this kills and weapons

btw you are referring to this article
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/former-iriaf-f-14-pilot-explains-how-he-was-able-to-score-16-aerial-kills-in-the-tomcat-eight-with-the-aim-54-phoenix-missile-two-with-the-m61a-vulcan-gun-and-one-with-the-mim-23-hawk-missile/