Military Nuts fighter of the week. The Tom Cat

CenturionMBT SG

F-14 TOMCAT STANDARD FLEET FIGHTER AIRCRAFT, USA

The F-14 Tomcat is the US Navy's carrier-based two-seat air defence, intercept, strike and reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft was developed by Northrop Grumman to replace the F-4 Phantom fighter and entered service with the US Navy in 1972. In 1987, the F-14B with an upgraded engine went into production. Further upgrades in the radar, avionics and missile capability resulted in the F-14D Super Tomcat, which first flew in 1988. The US Navy operated 338 F-14 aircraft of all three variants, but the aircraft is being replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. F-14 squadrons have started to change to the new aircraft; this process will continue until the aircraft is finally retired from service in 2007.

The variable sweep wing and the twin almost upright tail fins of the F-14 Tomcat give the aircraft its distinctive appearance. The variable sweep wings are set at 20° for take-off, loitering and landing, and automatically change to a maximum sweep of 68°, which reduces drag for high subsonic to supersonic speeds. The wings are swept at 75° for aircraft carrier stowage.

COCKPIT

Catseye night-vision goggles have been installed in the F-14 since 1996 and are supplied by BAE SYSTEMS. The F-14D front cockpit is equipped with a head-up display and two multifunction flat-screen displays. The rear cockpit for the Radar Intercept Officer is equipped with a display that presents fused data from the AN/APG-71 radar and from the suite of aircraft sensors.

82 US Navy F-14Bs are being upgraded with Flight Visions, Inc. Sparrow Hawk HUD and FV-3000 modular mission display system, which will improve reliability and night-vision capability. The cockpit is equipped with the NACES zero/zero ejection seat supplied by Martin Baker Aircraft Company.

WEAPONS

The F-14 is armed with a General Electric Vulcan M61A-1 20mm gun with 675 rounds of ammunition, which is mounted internally in the forward section of the fuselage on the port side. The aircraft has eight hardpoints for carrying ordnance: four on the fuselage and two each side under the fixed section of the wings. The aircraft can carry the short-, medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles AIM-9, AIM-7 and AIM-54, and air-to-ground ordnance including the Rockeye bomb and CBU cluster bombs. Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow is a medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missile with range of 45km. Lockheed Martin/Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder is a short-range air-to-air missile with a range of 8km. Raytheon AIM-54 Phoenix is a long-range air-to-air missile with a range of 150km. The F-14 can carry up to six Phoenix missiles and is capable of firing the missiles almost simultaneously at six different targets. The Phoenix missile was retired from US Navy service in October 2004.

The F-14D can carry four Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). First operational deployment of a precision-guided JDAM from an F-14 was in March 2003.

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/rangefinder. The navigation pod also contains a FLIR and terrain-following radar. A Lockheed Martin infrared search and track system is installed in a sensor pod under the nose.

SENSORS

The F-14D is equipped with a Raytheon AN/APG-71 digital multi-mode radar, which provides non-cooperative target identification, and incorporates low sidelobe techniques and enhanced frequency agility.

The F-14 carries a tactical air reconnaissance pod system (TARPS), which carries a Recon/Optical KS-87B forward or vertical frame camera, and a low-altitude panoramic view KA-99 camera, together with a Lockheed Martin AN/AAD-5 infrared linescanner. The pod is equipped with a digital imaging system for the transmission of near real-time imagery to the aircraft carrier command centre via a secure UHF radio data link. To supplement TARPS, US Navy F-14s are also being fitted with a fast tactical imagery (FTI) system, which is a line-of-sight system for targeting and reconnaissance.

COUNTERMEASURES

The aircraft is equipped with the BAE Systems Integrated Defense Solutions (formerly Tracor) and Lockheed Martin AN/ALE-39 and AN/ALE-29 chaff, flare and decoy dispensers. The Super Tomcat has a Raytheon AN/ALR-67(V)4 radar warning system and BAE Systems Information & Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS) (formerly Sanders) AN/ALQ-126 jammer.

ENGINE

The F-14B and the F-14D have two General Electric F110-GE-400 turbofan engines, rated at 72kN and 120kN with afterburn. There are five internal fuel tanks, which carry 9,000 litres and are located in the fixed section and the outer section of the wings, and in the rear section of the fuselage between the engines.

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/f14/images/tomcat4.jpg
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/f14/images/tomcat3.jpg

elektra SG

tis fighter is one of my research a/c for my fof proj... about types of wing...

Crying or Very sad

Lance_han SG

some of the best there is...but y did they take off the AIM-54 phoenix??? Laughing

sian..now can as well retire the bird liao... Mad

38 SG

can’t fire the fancy AIM-120

SBS3624G SG

The engines are placed in an unusual position, they are parallel, hence there is large amount of space for fuel between engines. Hence its long range, coupled with AIM-54s, the total strike range is damn big! Shocked
Another advantage of this arrangement is that the F-14 can bank at about 60degrees! Most fighetrs would have fallen out of the sky if they tried to sustain that banking. Cool
In my opinion, the F-14 is the ultimate plane. Built in 1970s, designed for the future.

aerozapper SG

Looks like you guys haven't heard the news.
In the past year, many of the F-14 Tomcat squadrons made the switch to the F/A-18. In fact, from what I last heard, almost all the remaining Tomcats have been transferred to a single command, awaiting retirement (Air Forces Monthly, Issue (Don't rem exact date).

As the US Navy's Fact Sheet on the F-14 states;

Current plan is to have Tomcats in service until mid-FY07. Tomcat squadrons have already started to transition to the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft, and will continue to transition in a phased approach.

The days of the Tomcat are numbered and the estimate of them being around until 2007 might even be brought forward in view of the US Base Realignment & Closure.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=1100&tid=1100&ct=1

SNAG01 SG

U r right.... the F-14 is awaiting retirement if not retired already... there was a magazine of them removing all the cannibalized parts from the decom a/c... quite a sad sight actually.

In its time it was the a/c with a singular role.... Fleet air defence against Soviet satutrated missle and air attacks.

Forever immortalized in the movie Top Gun... i remembered watching that movie when I grew up.

aerozapper SG

As for the AIM-54 Pheonix missile;
the AIM-54 Pheonix missile was retired because it was becoming obsolete. The missile was designed to shoot down Soviet bombers such as the Badger, Bear & Backfire from long range.

However, because of it's long range design there were trade-offs. It was huge in size (and has remained huge). Even while other missiles were developed further to make them smaller and more lethal, no such progress seemed to have occurred with regard to the Pheonix.

Large size meant lack of manoeuvrability. Hitting larger bombers with these was ok, but hitting small, fast and agile modern fighters is another matter altogether.

I tried searching the internet for confirmed use of the missile in combat. Apparently, there seem to have only been a few during the first Gulf War, all missed.

sbst275 SG

F-14 Tomcat...

Hmm... I only know it is better than the F-18 sis

38 SG

F18, the Navy bug just can’t catch TOMCAT~~

branzzz SG

uh..every plane can do a sustained level turn at 60deg angle of bank, even cessnas.

SBS3624G SG

Sorry, it ought to be exceeding 60 degrees. But no, you can't say that even Cessnas can do that. It takes a tremendous amount to lift to do that.

SpecOps87 SG

Yup,totally agree.Topgun immortalised the F14 Tomcat.Still it would be a real waste that they decommissioned the F14.In fact,F14,F15 adn F16s are like icons of the Western Fighter World.

sidetrack alittle,any idea how would F14 fair against the F15?

branzzz SG

yeah, cessnas can do them. so can pipers etc. it is however their max rate turn. stalling speed increases 41% at 60deg aob. anymore than 60 and the stall buffet is felt. the lift needed at 60aob is roughly twice that of straight and level flight. trust me, i’m very sure they can do it, cos i myself have done 60aob turns.

duotiga83 SG

sad that they did not contnue the NAFT program Neutral the design look like is the stealth ver of F-14

alert5 SG

For those who love Tomcats, I've lots of pictures at my website

We started with VF-103 Jolly Rogers returning from last cruise in the Tomcat

We have photos of Tomcats being phase out at Oceana's Bone Yard

This Tomcat was repainted to a 1970s color scheme and went to a museum at New England, we photo it from the paint shop to touch down at New England including the flypast of VF-143's last Tomcat flight.

We help arrange VF-11 photograph their 2 Tomcats with their new Super Hornet at St. Louis, in fact the air crew used our cameras( an EOS 10D and a Sony) to take air to air photos as well. We also have photos of the VF-11 Tomcat being delivered to a museum and the father of the Tomcat pilot (a retired Navy Captain) was proud of his son and left a comment on that picture gallery.

Our recent outing at Oceana was to take photos of a retro F-14 of VF-213. The CO likes it so much that he wrote me an email thanking us and inviting us to his squadron to take more photos!

The picture gallery is a favourite among Oceana's Tomcat and Hornet squadrons now. In fact a few crew chiefs goes to the webpage to read the news daily.

Check back at our website reguarly and we will have more photos of Tomcat's last days.

SBS3624G SG

What would happen if I say that I said wrongly? Embarassed

What I meant was that the F-14 can fly straight and level at angles exceeding 60deg. Besides that the Tomcat variable wings are automated by computer and the wings pivot in and out continuosly when dog-fighting. Cool

SBS3624G SG

AIM-54 has been known to intercept and destroy low-flying cruise missiles. Perhaps its high speed reduces manoverability, with cruising speed of M3.8. Shocked

coolant SG

I remember Iran once shot this missile from their F14A to Iraqi planes, but cant recall the final outcome, probably missed the target.

alert5 SG

Actually the max radius turn for a F-14A is 6.5gs with nose down to maintain the speed. Not so sure about the B and D version with GE engines.