Iranian Cancelled Acquisitions of the 1970s

[Deleted member 2278]

Is there any mention of Canada?

The search function is..... frustrating but I was able to find that Canada was one of seven nations exempted from the President's "new arms sales policy" re the F-18L:

StateDeptcable1977-138287 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

archive.org

So while the F-18L wasn't quite as doomed as I first thought, it is telling that in the absence of a US order, none of that seven elected to be launch customer. The LWF competition really did determine the shape of the deal of the century.
Even Canada considered possibly accepting the F-16's inadequacies in exchange for it's financial savings:

State Dept cable 1975-164478 : State Department : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

State Dept cable 1975-164478

archive.org

 

[Yellow Palace]

Presumably these FMS constraints would have applied to West Germany who seemed very keen on the F-18L around the same time? I don't recall seeing this raised in the British files I've seen on the TCA programme of this era though, so was this selective pedantism (F-18A vs F-18L) to deny the Shah the F-18?

PD-13 had a specific exception for NATO countries, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Israel to receive 'unique advanced weapons systems developed or significantly modified solely for export', but still prohibited from coproduction agreements. All seven of the nations mentioned as receiving technical data fall into this group. Under PD-13, if I'm reading it correctly, the Fokker F-16 production line wouldn't have been permitted, though the aircraft could have been exported from the United States.

There's some irony in the fact that if Iran had deferred its' defence buildup in favour of reinvesting windfall profits from oil, the revolution might have been averted; a richer Iran a few years later would have seen significant relaxation of export controls under (presumably) Reagan. That's veering into the alternative history section though.

Not necessarily. Somewhere I've seen the suggestion that this could be another case of duplicate reporting, with Iran considering sourcing Standard frigates from the Netherlands (Kortenear) or from Germany (Bremen/Type 122), or possibly even splitting the order. These were very similar ships, aside from the propulsion plant, and I'm sure German yards could have built them using British turbines as in the Dutch ships, or vice versa (it would have made more sense to use the German Type 122 plant, since at least the turbines would be common to the destroyers.)

It's certainly possible. The Iranian KORTENAER class were to be significantly modified ships anyway; given that the Dutch and German ships were intended to be closely related, splitting the order some way would be feasible. Whether that's eight ships in a 4/4 split, or twelve in an 8/4 would require more evidence. Perhaps the simplest explanation - and one consistent with all the evidence - was that they'd originally planned to do a 4/4 split, but German shipyard availability meant that all eight went to the Netherlands.

The CIA reporting the total of twelve is at least a credible contemporary source for the total of twelve. The State Department's report stating that the US had been approached about eight FFG-7s puts weight on that side. I do wonder whether it's a similar situation to the SPRUANCEs: original plans were for twelve, but orders were only actually placed for eight.

 

[Voltzz]

Eagle 2x35mm SPAAG from Ares for Iran

https://twitter.com/x/status/1152541655121170433

View: https://twitter.com/skylancer7441/status/1152541655121170433#m

 

[apparition13]

The C-5 order was part of the Shah's efforts to revitalise SEATO. Also, pre-revolution, Iran was pretty heavily involved in supporting UN peacekeeping operations.

According to this story May 8, 1974 NY Times story they were looking to buy at least 6, but that was dependent on enough sales to the U.S. and other buyers to pay back the $160 million it would take to reopen the line.

https://www.nytimes.com/1974/05/08/...on-merger-lockheed-weighs-textron-merger.html

Oh, and a possible Lockheed-Textron merger because of Lockheed's financial issues.