Biggest Superpowers on Earth VS Iran

TL;DR

Britain and the Soviet Union invaded neutral Iran in 1941 to secure oil and supply routes, overwhelming its military in just six days.

Key Points

• 1.Britain and the USSR jointly invaded neutral Iran in August 1941 in a six-day campaign. Iran favored Germany as a trade partner and refused to expel German nationals, giving the Allies pretext; the operation ended August 31st when British and Soviet forces linked up, with Iran suffering ~800 killed versus only ~62 Allied deaths.
• 2.Iran was massively outgunned but fought with stubborn resistance. Iran fielded nine divisions, ~50 Czech light tanks, ~100 armored cars, and only 40 airworthy planes; the Soviets alone deployed three full armies, hundreds of tanks, and over 400 fighter planes.
• 3.The invasion's aftermath reshaped Iran's politics and the Cold War's opening moves. Shah Reza Pahlavi abdicated on September 16, 1941; the 1942 Tripartite Treaty guaranteed Allied withdrawal post-war, but the Soviets secretly funded separatist movements in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan and only left in May 1946, marking one of the Cold War's first crises.
• 4.The US deliberately shredded its entire F-14 Tomcat fleet in 2006 specifically because of Iran. In the 1970s, the US sold Iran 79 F-14s and ~200 Phoenix missiles; after the 1979 revolution Iran kept them, and during the Iran-Iraq War Iranian Tomcats reportedly downed over 160 Iraqi aircraft, proving the jet remained lethally relevant.
• 5.The F-14's variable-sweep wings and AWG-9 radar made it the most capable naval fighter of its era. It could track 24 targets simultaneously at hundreds of miles, carry six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles with 100+ mile range, and fire all six at different targets simultaneously — capabilities still rare decades later.
• 6.To prevent sensitive technology reaching Iran, China, or others, the Pentagon destroyed 165 Tomcats and shredded every wing box — even museum examples. Without the wing box the aircraft cannot function; tooling, blueprints, and production lines were eliminated, leaving only Iranian airframes, estimated at up to 30 surviving jets of unknown operational status.