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2021-10-14 Science & Technology

The short, difficult career of the F-14 Tomcat...

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Posted by M. Murcek 2021-10-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 The F-14 was not a fighter. It was an interceptor. Its entire purpose was not to turn and burn in the furball, but to shoot down incoming Soviet nuclear cruise missiles at maximum distance from its carrier. If it could shoot down the bombers that launched them, so much the better, but that wasn't its primary job. It was an anti-missile platform.

Posted by Omomolet Phutch9064 2021-10-14 00:14|| 2021-10-14 00:14|| Front Page Top

#2 The short, difficult career of the F-14 Tomcat...

I'm having a hard time seeing a thirty-two year career as 'short'.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2021-10-14 01:49|| 2021-10-14 01:49|| Front Page Top

#3 There was a C-SPAN video explaining it: A Carrier Air Wing composed of F/A-18 "fighter-bombers" has more flexibility/effectiveness than a composite Air Wing of F-14s and A-6s. IIRC there were also mounting problems with the reliability of both the stored AIM-54 Phoenix missiles (why we had a F-14 in the first place) and the complicated F-14 airframe.

Posted by magpie 2021-10-14 01:50|| 2021-10-14 01:50|| Front Page Top

#4 F-4 Phantom was in prodiction from 1968-1981. It had a short, difficult career too, I guess. Sure saw a lot of them at work though.

Posted by Fred 2021-10-14 02:25|| 2021-10-14 02:25|| Front Page Top

#5 I remember when the F-14 was looking for a mission in the mid-90s. We called them Bomb Cats when they tried to get in the Close Air Support business. Short-lived venture but I have some cool pics..

Posted by Bangkok Billy 2021-10-14 05:21|| 2021-10-14 05:21|| Front Page Top

#6 Tomcat sacrificed on the Altar of the Hornet, along with the Intruder and Prowler. While at Strike, we had 2 Delta Toms that were Bombcats; very impressive and were in high demand for various projects. Sadly, we also had 2 very low-time A models that did not have the fuselage damage typical of fleet units (engine bay area cracks). The pentagon chose to part them out for fleet squadrons rather than pay to rework/rewire as D’s. How about maybe 300 hours with only 1 or 2 ( field) traps and 0 cat shots?

Posted by USN, Ret. 2021-10-14 09:05|| 2021-10-14 09:05|| Front Page Top

#7 Wasn't Top Gun / Maverick's primary plane an F-15 Eagle?

Posted by Raj 2021-10-14 09:37|| 2021-10-14 09:37|| Front Page Top

#8 Nope Raj, it was the F-14. The Top Gun 2 he flew a F-18 super hornet

Posted by DarthVader 2021-10-14 10:04|| 2021-10-14 10:04|| Front Page Top

#9 Short life span? Well, compared to a B-52. Are there any flying with their any of their original parts?

Posted by Procopius2k 2021-10-14 10:29|| 2021-10-14 10:29|| Front Page Top

#10 The F-14 made sense when we were on the verge of World War III...

And we're currently not?

Posted by Matt 2021-10-14 12:57|| 2021-10-14 12:57|| Front Page Top

#11 No, we're not.

Posted by Omomolet Phutch9064 2021-10-14 13:00|| 2021-10-14 13:00|| Front Page Top

#12 Enough about Maverick, what about Iron Eagle, the only story that shows how the F-16 performance improves with the right music.

Posted by ruprecht 2021-10-14 19:03|| 2021-10-14 19:03|| Front Page Top

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