Why the F-14 Tomcat Is Such a Badass Plane

hello everyone welcome back again with us at military tv in this episode we're going to talk about the story of the f-14 tomcat is the tomcat really retired and why everyone still loves it keep watching you will find the answer in this video after more than three decades in service with the united states navy however the grumman f-14 tomcats 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 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 a 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 weapon system that included a powerful hughes awg9 radar which when 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 20 millimeter gatling style rotary cannon with its variable sweep wing the f-14 could match the speed of the 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 u.s navy installed the lockheed martin lantern precision strike navigation and targeting pod on the f-14 the lantern targeting pod includes a dual field of view fleer 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 through the 1990s and early 2000s where it was utilized to strike escort and reconnaissance roles in operation desert storm as well an 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 fa-18 ef 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 and 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 multi-role 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 sustained flight speeds over the speed of sound without using the afterburner however the navy chose instead to field the f-18 ef 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 than 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 fa-18ef 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 thanks for watching don't forget to leave your comment below if you have a great topic to be discussed about military [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Applause] you

Channel: Military TV

Views: 1,442,377

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Id: AbKOmmmRDT0

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2021