The F-14, popularly known as Tomcat, is a successor to the F-4 Phantom II. The F-14 is a two-seat, twin-engine jet fighter built for the U.S. Navy by the Grumman Corporation (now part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation) from 1970 to 1992. it was designed in the 1960s with the aerodynamic and electronic capacities to defend U.S. aircraft-carrier operations at long ranges against Soviet aircraft and missiles. Delivery to the U.S. Navy began in 1972, and the last F-14 was retired from service in 2006. Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, Although this aircraft was designed for the U.S. Navy, Iran bought approximately 80 of the F-14. Very few of the aircraft were maintained there in various states of readiness despite aging and lack of parts.
The F-14 was very advanced technology-wise as it was equipped with variable-geometry wings that adjusted automatically for optimal performance at various speeds and altitudes. The F-14 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney or General Electric turbofan engines, each generating 21,000 to 27,000 pounds of thrust with afterburning, it could surpass Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) at high altitudes and Mach 1 at sea level. The F-14 weapons system is capable of tracking up to 24 enemy aircraft as far away as 195 miles (314 km) while simultaneously guiding long-range missiles to six of them. The inner wings and fuselage of the F-14 house the Medium and short-range missiles for surface targets. For close-range dogfighting, the F-14 had a 20-millimeter rotary cannon mounted in its fuselage as these operations were handled by the radar-intercept officer, seated behind the pilot.
The F-14 flew air patrol missions in the last days of the Vietnam War without engaging in combat. In 1981, carrier-based F-14s directly engaged Libyan fighters in air-to-air combat, and in 1986 they flew combat air patrol during bombing operations against that country. In 1995, during NATO’s intervention in Bosnia, F-14s given the nickname “Bombcats” struck targets with laser-guided bombs. The fighter was also used in various roles over Iraq and Afghanistan through the 1990s and early 2000s. It was the plane featured in the motion picture Top Gun (1986). After 2006 the United States destroyed its mothballed F-14s as part of an effort to keep usable parts from reaching Iran.
The F-14 Versus MiG-23 Floggers
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On January 4, 1989, near the Libyan coast, Two VF-32 F-14As flying CAP from the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) are alerted to a pair of Libyan Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 Floggers. The MiG-23s had taken off from Al Bumbaw Airfield near Tobruk. The F-14s locked the MiGs with their powerful AWG-9 radar. Normally such a radar lock resulted in the MiGs retreating back to Libya, not this time. The Tomcats were threatened by the AA-7 Apex missile-carrying Floggers and were cleared to engage the MiGs.
During a lengthy six- to eight-minute air battle, the MiGs continued to threaten the Tomcats, and finally, after several attempts to evade the MiG radar threat, the incoming pair of MiG-23s were declared hostile and the F-14 crews were cleared to engage. The crew of the lead F-14A, AC202 fired an AIM-7 Sparrow missile which did not strike its target, while the second F-14A’s, AC207 (BuNo. 159610) AIM-7 found its target destroying one of the MiG-23s. The lead F-14 re-engaged the remaining MiG-23 firing an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missile which detonated in the tailpipe of the Flogger. Both MiG pilots ejected safely from their destroyed aircraft.
Flight performance of the F-14
At takeoff and low-speed flight, the aircraft wings are designed to expand their overall surface area providing the fighter with greater lift. The reverse will be the case at supersonic speed making it a more efficient high-speed pursuit fighter and granting it a higher top speed and better fuel economy covering 1,600 miles without refueling.
The 63 feet long and 64-foot wingspan F-14 Tomcat can attain speeds in excess of Mach 1 at sea level and surpass Mach 2.34 at altitude thanks to two General Electric F110-GE-400 after-burning turbofan engines that each produced more than 28,000 pounds of thrust with their afterburners engaged.
The F-14 Tomcat Capabilities
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From the radar-intercept officer’s seat, located just behind the pilot, you could track as many as 24 enemy aircraft from as far away as 195 miles with the AWG-9 X-band pulse-doppler radar, which utilizes one of the first microprocessors to ever find its way onto a fighter jet. The powerful onboard systems could direct long-range missiles to six separate targets simultaneously without losing track of the others.
“The Tomcat/AUG-9 radar/Phoenix trio was conceived to protect the fleet from supersonic Soviet bombers whose only goal was the destruction of the carrier,” Paco Chierici, former F-14 pilot and author of Lions of the Sky, tells Popular Mechanics.
The AWG-9 system was so capable that the F-14 could even target and engage airborne cruise missiles. That system was initially bolstered by the Western world’s only internal Infrared Search and Track sensor at the time, the ALR-23 though that system was eventually replaced with an optical sensor that fed data directly into the AWG-9.
Depending on the target and its distance, the F-14 had robust armaments options to choose from. With 10 total hardpoints and a weapons payload capacity of 14,500 pounds, the Tomcat packed a serious punch, but the real heavy hitter was it Phoenix missile.
“The Tomcat was a massive airplane wrapped behind an enormous radar specially built to fire the most lethal air-to-air missile in the western inventory, the AIM-54 Phoenix,” Chierici explains. “Missiles fielded today are just catching up to some, but not all, of the capabilities the Phoenix possessed.”
With the introduction of less-expensive Super Hornets which were purposefully built with air-to-ground engagements in mind, the Navy saw the need to reduce its fleet to cut off maintenance costs. In 2006, the F-14 was retired in favor of the slower, cheaper Super Hornet as the powerful F-14 became a warrior without a war.
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