Just to add on Iranian chaffs and decoys use :
I asked on acig, and here is the answer I got from Tom Cooper :
http://www.acig.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7131&p=200739#p200739
jeanba wrote:
Hello I have been reading the french "Avion" special issues on the Iran-Iraq war. It is very interesting as it gives a global view of the conflict in the air I never had. I have a question about the IRIIAF : it is written that they were "not enough" advanced in the field of countermeasures, but did they use chaffs and flares ? Because there are some comments on IRAF planes using decoys, but none about IRIIAF ? Thank you in advance
What was meant with this was that none of fighter-bombers in service with the IRIAF during that war has got any chaff & flare dispensers. That is: the F-4D/Es, RF-4Es, and F-5A/B, RF-5As and F-5E/Fs haven't got any; only F-14s have got them. The IIAF did purchase some containers (can't recall their exact designation right now), that could be installed into one of the rear Sparrow bays of its F-4Es, in the 1970s. But, there was only a handful of these (I think there were 9 in total), and they were never used operationally. Essentially, the IIAF expected that (and there seem to have been corresponding agreements with Washington) that - should there be a war - it would receive similar kind of help from the USA like the IDF/AF received during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Of course, when Iraqis invaded, in October 1980, this didn't happen, and thus major fighter-bomber types of the air force went into the war actually poorly equipped for electronic warfare: except for ALQ-101s, even all the 120 ('or so') ECM-pods the IRIAF has got were obsolete. This cost the IRIAF dearly during the war. In comparison, from 1984-1985 period, the IrAF wasn't operating over the battlefield if it couldn't provide suitable ECM-support. I.e. if it couldn't provide support from Caiman-equipped Mirages for formations of its aircraft, and if involved aircraft haven't got chaff & flare dispensers. The few times it did, it always suffered heavy losses (one example would've been the Tu-16 shot down by Iranians over Faw, in 1986: this should've got support from Caiman-equipped Mirages, but these failed to appear because of a technical snag, and then the command failed to recall the Tu-16 on time).