Hello everyone, welcome back again with us at Military TV. In this episode, we are going
to talk about the story of F-14 Tomcat. Is Tomcat really retired? and why everyone still
love it? Keep watching, you will find the answer in
the video. After more than three decades in service with
the United States Navy. However, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat's demise has left gaps in the
carrier air wing that are only now being felt. Designed to incorporate the air combat experience
learned during the Vietnam War, the F-14 was the first of the American "Teen Series" fighters
that included the F-15 Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A-18 Hornet. The Grumman
F-14 Tomcat was originally designed to serve aboard U.S. Navy carriers, where they would
be the first line of defense against Soviet nuclear bombers. As such, the F-14 was built
not just to fight, but to cover great distances at a high rate of speed so they could rapidly
close with approaching bombers, hold their own against fighter escorts, and prevent Soviet
nuclear weapons from ever reaching U.S. shores. Fortunately, nuclear war never came, and after
the fall of the Soviet Union, the Tomcat’s expensive maintenance started to seem a bit
less worthwhile. The U.S. Navy eventually decided to phase the F-14 out in favor of
the F/A-18 Hornet, an aircraft that emphasized ground engagement, rather than air superiority.
The F-14, which made its first deployment in 1974, arrived as a supersonic, twin-engine,
variable-sweep wing, the two-place fighter that was designed to engage enemy aircraft
in all weather conditions as well as at night. It was designed to track up to 24 targets
simultaneously. The plane featured an advanced weapons system that includes a powerful Hughes
AWG-9 radar, which used in conjunction with the Phoenix AIM-54A missiles, can pick out
and destroy a chosen target from a formation at a distance of over 100 miles. Additional
armaments include a variety of other intercept missiles, rockets, bombs, and an internal
M61A1 Vulcan 20mm Gatling-style rotary cannon. With its variable-sweep wing, the F-14 could
match the speeds of other aircraft as needed and for takeoff and low-speed flight, the
wings would shift to the front, while for supersonic speeds the wings could tuck backward.
Because of its versatility, it served as an air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor,
and even tactical reconnaissance platform. In 1995, the US Navy installed the Lockheed
Martin LANTIRN precision strike navigation and targeting pod on the F-14. The LANTIRN
targeting pod includes a dual field of view FLIR and a laser designator or rangefinder.
In other words, Tomcat was among the most capable fighters in the sky back in 1979 with
a top speed in excess of Mach 2.4 and a rate of climb of around 45,000 feet per minute.
The United States Navy continued to rely on the F-14 throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,
where it was utilized in strike escort and reconnaissance roles in Operation Desert Storm
as well in Operation Deliberate Force and Operation Allied Force in the conflicts in
the former Yugoslavia. The F-14's final combat mission took place in February 2006 when two
Tomcats were used in a bombing mission in Iraq. After retired, the aircraft had still
a great potential to be exploited in the following years, however, it was becoming increasingly
expensive to maintain and the Department of Defense decided to cut funding for all Tomcat
upgrades, like the Tomcat 21 program, in favor of the new F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Indeed,
many were not favorable to this decision, as the Tomcat still had some advantages over
its replacement. A question comes to our mind, is Tomcat really
retired? This brings us to the sad fate of the retired
Navy F-14s. Initially placed in storage, the Tomcats were literally shredded and crushed
so as to prevent them from serving as a source of spare parts for Iran.
The Tomcat entered service shortly before the F-15 Eagle, an aircraft poised to remain
in service for years to come. Did the Tomcat need to go so early?
In fact, several different “Super Tomcats” were proposed to the Navy that would have
thoroughly modernized the aging avionics and made it fully capable as a multirole fighter.
One variant, the Attack Super Tomcat 21, would even have featured an advanced AESA radar,
vector-thrust engines, and the ability to super cruise at Mach 1.2 that is, sustain
flight speeds over the speed of sound without using the afterburner. However, the Navy chose
instead to field the F-18E/F Super Hornet. The Hornet airframe was not quite as optimized
for air-to-air combat but still delivered excellent performance, was based on fly-by-wire
technology, and cost less money and time to fly and maintain. The choice between investing
in a Super Tomcat or fielding the Super Hornet inevitably involved a trade-off and the Super
Hornet simply came out ahead in the Navy’s calculus.
Nonetheless, the Tomcat did prove itself to be one of the great American fighters of its
era in the hands of both the U.S. Navy and the Iranian Air Force. As stated by the U.S
Air Force, Zandi is credited with 11 kills in an F-14, an amazing achievement for any
fighter pilot. But he was in good company during the Iran-Iraq War because his fellow
pilots were keeping the skies clear of any offending Iraqi aircraft.
While the F-14 was retired from service with the Navy, and supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E/F
Super Hornet, the Tomcat remains in use with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force. Only
a handful of the planes, which were purchased by the Imperial Iranian Air Force in the 1970s,
remain in operation but according to reports these aircraft have flown escort missions
in Syria proving that even after nearly 50 years the Tomcat still has sharp claws.
Thank for watching, don’t forget to leave your comment below if you have a great topic
to be discussed about military.