Aimed At Cutting Off Parts Supply To Iran

Building on a current ban on the sale of surplus parts to hostile countries such as Iran, on Thursday the US House of Representatives took action to ban the Pentagon from selling leftover parts from its recently retired fleet of F-14 Tomcats, period.

Originally a separate bill known as the "Stop Arming Iran Act," the measure was rolled into the current $646 billion military budget the House approved this week. The bill now heads to the Senate for a vote, reports the Washington Post.

As Aero-News reported last month, the Department of Defense earlier this year suspended the sale of surplus F-14 parts -- as well as parts from other aircraft, that could be used on Tomcats -- while it conducts a voluntary review of its procedures.

The DoD is concerned Iran -- the only country still flying F-14s, or at least trying to -- will purchase those parts to maintain its aging fleet. The country's government is openly hostile to the United States, and its interests.

Congress hopes to add teeth to the current ban, by making it a federal offense -- literally -- to sell Tomcat parts to an entity other than a museum.

"I believe that the process needs to be tightened up and now that I've really been made much more aware of the problems that can arise, I plan to be more vigilant on future problems," said Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who sponsored the bill with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Giffords' district includes Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where many of the F-14s are mothballed.

If the defense funding bill fails to win approval, Giffords says she will reintroduced her bill separately. She stressed it is important to preserve demilitarized examples of the 1970s-vintage fighters in museums, for historians.

FMI: www.dod.mil, www.congress.gov