 However, IRIAF officials and pilots insist that the Soviets were never allowed near the F-14s, and never received any F-14 or AIM-54 technology.Also, the AIM-54 missile was never out of service in the IRIAF, though the stocks of operational missiles were low at times.Clandestine deliveries from US sources and black market purchases supplied spares to top up the Phoenix reserves during the war, and spares deliveries from the US in the 1990s have also helped.