The United States is destroying F-14 jets to keep their parts from being sold to Iran.A St. Louis company, TRI-Rinse, won a three-year, $3.7 million contract to render surplus military equipment useless, The Associated Press reported. Nearly a quarter of that sum will be used to destroy 23 F-14s at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.The Defense Department had intended only to destroy parts unique to the F-14 and sell other parts that could be used on other aircraft. The change in policy came after AP reported that buyers for Iran and China had acquired sensitive U.S. military gear through gaps in surplus-sale security.”There were things getting to the bad guys, so to speak,” said Tim Shocklee, executive vice president of TRI-Rinse.
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