Another long-standing IrAF requirement was that for a tanker aircraft. The first related conversion took place in 1983 and consisted of parking and securing a fuel truck inside the cargo hold of an Il-76MD, and connecting it to a Douglas/Intertechnique D-704 refuelling pod installed underneath the rear cargo door. This solution was abandoned in favour of using Mirage F.1EQ-4s and F.1EQ-5s as buddy-tankers during the last three years of the war with Iran, because of their superior survivability. Immediately after the ceasefire, the MIC then initiated a project of converting old Tupolev Tu-16 bombers into tankers. Details of this project remain scarce, but at least one aircraft – serial number 505 – was modified through the installation of one D-704 pod under each wingtip. This was also flight tested in 1989–1990, but never deployed operationally. This artwork is a reconstruction of the left profile of the Tu-16 in question, based on the only piece of visual evidence available: a mural that decorated one of the squadron ready-rooms at Saddam AB. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)