Iran's purchases from the United States prior to the Iranian Revolution in 1979 included: 79 F-14 Tomcats, 455 M60 Patton tanks, 225 McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter planes, including 16 RF-4E reconnaissance variants; 166 Northrop F-5 Tiger II fighters and 15 Northrop RF-5A reconnaissance planes; 12 Lockheed P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft and two decommissioned and modernised American destroyers, ( and ). As of 1976 Iran had acquired 500 M109 howitzers from the United States, 52 MIM-23 Hawk anti aircraft batteries with over 2000 missiles, over 2500 AGM-65 Maverick air to ground missiles and over 10,000 BGM-71 TOW missiles. Furthermore, Iran ordered hundreds of helicopters from the United States, notably 202 Bell AH-1J Sea Cobras, 100 Boeing CH-47C Chinooks and 287 Bell 214 helicopters.2.^ navsource.org USS Zellars</ref>