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Grumman F-14 Tomcat

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The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was a United States Navy supersonic, twin-engine, swing-wing, two-seat interceptor. Its primary mission was fleet defense, though it also performed tactical reconnaissance, air superiority, and later acquired precision strike and close air support capabilities in the 1990's. It entered service in 1972 with the USN, replacing the F-4 Phantom II. It was later exported to the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) in 1976. The USN is replacing the F-14 with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2006. The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) will remain the only air arm flying F-14s.

Origins

In the 1960s, U.S. Navy doctrine for fleet defense against nuclear missile-armed Soviet bombers, was defense in depth. As originally envisioned, the outer ring of this defense consisted of interceptors armed with long range missiles. This was originally to be fulfilled by the F6D Missileer, a slow, straight-winged jet, and Bendix AAM-N-10 Eagle missiles, but both projects were cancelled. A supersonic alternative would have to accommodate the contradictory demands of high speed, long range, and low landing speeds for carrier operations. Variable geometry wings offered a solution to this conundrum.

Defense Secretary Robert MacNamara believed commonality would save money over buying a variety of different aircraft for different services and roles. After successfully directing the Air Force to adopt the Navy's F-4 and A-7, the Navy's new interceptor would be based on the Air Force's new strike fighter the TFX (Tactical Fighter Experimental), later denoted the F-111. In popular media, the F-111 was proclaimed to be the most versatile fighter ever, slow enough to land on dirt fields, faster than almost any other fighter, delivering massive bomb loads, and clearing the skies of enemy fighters. That vision would not come to fruition, and it would be the F-4 Phantom, the plane that the F-111 was intended to replace, that would be the last US fighter to fly in all three American air arms, excelling in all fighter and bomber roles.

The navalized variant of the F-111, the F-111B, had the single mission of fleet air defense - it would orbit on station, then dash to meet oncoming targets and clear the sky with its 6 heavy AIM-54 Phoenix missiles. Since General Dynamics had little experience with carrier aircraft, they teamed with Grumman for the F-111B. However, the compromises involved in producing a common airframe rendered the F-111B a poor fit for the Navy's requirements. It had a smaller radar than the Navy required, and was drastically overweight, rendering the aircraft underpowered and ill-suited to carrier operations. Its visibility for carrier landings was poor.

The final undoing of McNamara's vision would be the one factor ommitted from the TFX specification, that had been decisive in every prior air war. What was thought to be obsolete by the missle age was maneuverability in a dogfight. In 1965, the fighter community was shocked when the F-111's forerunner, the supersonic F-105 was shot down by post-Korean war vintage Mig-17s which were slow but nimble. The Sparrow medium range missle was unreliable and ineffective at close range, but guns, deleted as excess weight from the F-4, often were effective. When the Navy ordered Grumman to study the effectivess of the F-111B in such a scenario, they concluded it was much less maneuverable than the F-4, and would not survive, much less win in a dogfight. The F-111B was cancelled in 1968, but the silver lining was that the F-111s dogfight performance was so abysmal, and the accountants approach to fighter design was so discredited, that both the Navy and USAF embarked on studies on what would become a generation of 4 new air superiority fighters. The Navy would soon start realistic air combat training that would become Top Gun, and the F-14 would be the first of the famous teen-series fighters that embraced a new philosiphy that incorporated agility as at least one of the primary design goals. Ironically the F-111A would prove to be an excellent single-role bomber, and the Australian Air Force will be flying their F-111s long after the retirement of the F-14 in 2006.

Following the cancellation, the Navy had the opportunity to start from scratch, unburdened by the competing demands of the Air Force for air superiority and ground strike. The Navy issued an RFP for the VFX(Navy Fighter Experimental) in July 1968 for a fleet air defense fighter. Though later offered to the Air Force, their FX would be a single seat, fixed wing fighter unburdened by heavy Phoenix missles that put daylight air superiority ahead of long range interception, the F-15 Eagle.

The maneuvering air superiority requirement

In 1967, seeing the writing on the wall for the F-111B, Grumman began preparing an advanced design, the G-303. The basic goals were to make a plane superior to the McDonnell F-4 Phantom, "particularly in the air superiority, escort fighter, and deck-launched interception role". In 2006, many questioned whether the F-14 had originally been intended to be a dogfighting air superiority fighter in view of its primary fleet defence mission. In an interview on the 2006 television program "Modern Marvels" on the retirement of the F-14, F-14 test pilot Charlie Brown stated "we needed air superiority, which required an air combat maneuverable fighter, capable of being a nimble and agile, a dogfighter". . Grumman had design a wing which could fly at Mach 2, and "maneuver spryly" in combat, the swing wing was "first priority". . Lowering the weight to just half the 80,000 lb weight of the F-111B also raised its thrust to weight ratio higher than the less capable F-4. The wing area of the F-14 was also increased for the main purpose of agility.

When the Navy decided for cost and time reasons to keep the AN/AWG-9 radar, AIM-54 Phoenix missile, and the Pratt & Whitney TF30 engines from the failed F-111B, this biased the competition heavily in favor of Grumman, which had been working closely with General Dynamics on the F-111B. Grumman's swing-wing design was selected in 1969.

Grumman was given the contract for the F-14 in January 1969. Upon being granted the contract for the F-14, Grumman greatly expanded its Calverton, Long Island, New York facility to test and evaluate the new swing-wing interceptor. Much of the testing was in the air of the Long Island sound as well as the first few in-flight accidents including the first of many compressor stalls and ejections.

The Tomcat is said to be named for the late Vice Admiral Thomas Connolly, whose testimony before the Senate, "Gentlemen, there isn't enough thrust in Christen-dom to make that F-111 into a fighter" basically killed the F-111B. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Variants

  • YF-14A : Prototypes and pre-production aircraft. 12 built.
  • F-14A : The original production two-seat all-weather interceptor fighter version for the US Navy. Modifications late in its service life added precision strike munitions to its armament
  • F-14A + Plus or F-14B : Upgraded version of the F-14A with GE F110-400 engines. Much of the avionics as well as the AWG-9 radar were retained. Later redesignated F-14B.
  • F-14D Super Tomcat : The final incarnation of the F-14. The troublesome TF30 engines were replaced with GE F110-400 engines, giving the F-14 the thrust the airframe was originally designed for (F-14Bs also received the GE F110). Also "Digitized" and fitted with a "Glass" cockpit as well as the new AGP-71 radar.

Operators

United States Navy (USN) squadrons

  • VF-1 Wolfpack (Disestablished September 30, 1993)
  • VF-2 Bounty Hunters (Redesignated VFA-2 with F/A-18F July 1, 2003)
  • VF-11 Red Rippers (Redesignated to VFA-11 with F/A-18F in May, 2005)
  • VF-14 Tophatters (Redesignated VFA-14 with F/A-18E December 1, 2001)
  • VF-21 Freelancers (Disestablished January 31, 1996)
  • VF-24 Fighting Renegades (Disestablished August 20, 1996)
  • VF-31 Tomcatters (Active; scheduled for redesignation to VFA-31 with F/A-18E in Sept 2006)
  • VF-32 Swordsmen (Redesignated VFA-32 with F/A-18F on October 1, 2005)
  • VF-33 Starfighters (Disestablished October 1, 1993)
  • VF-41 Black Aces (Redesignated VFA-41 with F/A-18F, December 1, 2001)
  • VF-51 Screaming Eagles (Disestablished March 31, 1995)
  • VF-74 Bedevilers (Disestablished April 30, 1994)
  • VF-84 Jolly Rogers (Disestablished October 1, 1995)
  • VF-101 Grim Reapers (Disestablished September 15, 2005)
  • VF-102 Diamondbacks (Redesignated VFA-102 with F/A-18F in May 1, 2002)
  • VF-103 Sluggers/Jolly Rogers (Redesignated VFA-103 with F/A-18F May 1, 2005)
  • VF-111 Sundowners (Disestablished March 31, 1995)
  • VF-114 Aardvarks (Disestablished April 30, 1993)
  • VF-124 Gunfighters (Disestablished September 30, 1994)
  • VF-142 Ghostriders (Disestablished April 30, 1995)
  • VF-143 Pukin' Dogs (Redesignated VFA-143 with F/A-18E in early 2005)
  • VF-154 Black Knights (Redesignated VFA-154 with F/A-18F October 1, 2003)
  • VF-191 Satan's Kittens (Disestablished April 30, 1988)
  • VF-194 Red Lightnings (Disestablished April 30, 1988)
  • VF-201 Hunters (Redesignated VFA-201 with F/A-18A January 1, 1999)
  • VF-202 Superheats (Disestablished December 31, 1999)
  • VF-211 Fighting Checkmates (Redesignated VFA-211 with F/A-18F October 1, 2004)
  • VF-213 Black Lions (Active; scheduled for redesignation to VFA-213 with F/A-18F in May 2006)
  • VF-301 Devil's Disciples (Disestablished December 31, 1994)
  • VF-302 Stallions (Disestablished December 31, 1994)
  • VX-4 Evaluators (Disestablished September 30, 1994)
  • VX-9 Vampires (Currently operates F/A-18C/D/E/F, EA-6B, AV-8B, & AH-1)

Iranian Air Force (IRIAF) squadrons

F-14 in combat

Main article: Combat history of the F-14

F-14s of the U.S. Navy have shot down five enemy aircraft for no losses. One has been lost to a surface-to-air missile. The combat record of the F-14 in IRIAF service is much debated. In 1980 the downing of a soviet built Iraqi Tu-22 "Blinder" bomber was observed by AWAC crews, while other incidents remain unconfirmed . Recent books by Tom Cooper and Farzad Bishop claim nearly 150 kills.

F-14 in fiction and popular culture

Specifications (F-14D Super Tomcat)

An F-14 launches an AIM-7 Sparrow

General characteristics

Performance

Armament
13,000 lb (5,900 kg) of ordnance including:

Avionics

Unit cost
  • Unit Cost: US$38 million

External links

References

  • Tony Holmes (2005). US Navy F-14 Tomcat Units of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Osprey Publishing Limited.
  • Lou Drendel (1977). F-14 Tomcat in Action, Squadron/Signal Publications
  • GRUMMAN F-14 , Vol. 25 by J.P.Stevenson, Aero Series of Tab Books Inc., ISBN 0-8306-8592-8. 1975 book discusses design of F-14 was centered around maneuvering air combat, selection of swing wing over fixed because of maneuverability, extensive ground attack capability, long range.
  • Modern Marvels: the F-14 (History Channel) The Navy had "a new set of requirements: Mach 2 speed, great maneuverability, powerful radar and the ability to carry a variety of weapons"


Related content

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

  1. U.S. Navy Fact File
  2. Rand report: Return of the Air Superiority Fighters
  3. Baugher F-14 history
  4. See the F-14 talk page on this controversy, June 2006
  5. Modern Marvels
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