F-14 Tomcat

[uk 75]

In my wanderings through my mountain of cuttings I have re-discovered my fondness for the F14 Tomcat.  When I was at school and College I seemed to amass a collection of Tomcat toys and stuff, and later on a Manufacturers desk model in 1:72.

Apart from the USN and the Iranians a whole slew of countries would have liked the plane but had to reject it as too expensive or found the F15 more suitable (Saudis and Japan). The following others seem to have looked at it:

USAF (To replace F106, F15/F16 instead)
US Marines (F18 instead)

RAF (Bought Tornado ADV)
Canada (Bought F18s)
Luftwaffe (Soldiered on with F4E)

Israel (Bought F15)

South Korea (Bought F16, toyed with F18)
Australia (Bought F18)

As far as I know no Iranian F14s ended up in Iraqi or other hands (scope for some neat models of defected Iranian jets)

The USN has taken the plane out of service now and there seem to be no re-tread takers because of the cost and sophistication.  On past form these might have included:

Brazil  (together with a US conventional carrier) if it had loads of money

Taiwan (they used to sweep up any fighters they could get hold of)

Turkey (a bit like Taiwan)

Sir Chicken if you are looking, how about some nice drawings!

UK 75  

[Alvis 3.1]

Canada was poised to but the F-14s from Iran after their revolution, as they felt no need for a tool of the great Satan. We likely would have gotten them at a good price...not! In the end however, a minority Conservative government decided to move our emabssy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, setting the iranians (and a few other arab countries too) off in a major tizzy (They hadn't recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as it was holy to Islam as well..yadda yadda)
Lucky for us anyhow, as shortly afterwards the American embassy was seized by students and our embassy managed to smuggle 3 or 4 of the Americans who were offsite at the time. Once Iran found out, we were told "one day, Canada* will pay for this"...so our F-14s would have likely been paid for but never shipped.


In any case, I've always wanted to do an Iranian F-14 in it's camo with Canadian roundels and flags placed on it for delivery purposes only!


*uttered by one of Khomenis' supporters, who had been educated in BC!


Alvis 3.1

[Iranian F-14A]

Spain also looked at buying the Tomcat,but in the end,they too went with the Hornet.I did some profiles of some Spanish,Aussie,Canadian,Israeli and Saudi Cats awhile back,now only if I can find them.(assuming I didn't lose them when my computer crashed.)


A couple others I had plans of doing but never got around to:

Greece-in either a European One or Ghost camo

United Arab Emirites-2 or 3 tone desert camo

Poland-The 3 tone green/brown woodland camo like on their Mig-29s

[gooberliberation]

Ah man, now I want to do an F-14 in ROCAF markings, with lots of MiG kill marks  

[Joe C-P]

The Soviets are known to have obtained one from the Iranians - there are photos.

Part of the problem with the F-14 is its age; even with all the upgrades and rebuilds, it's a 40 year old design, and it has about 10 times as many parts as an AF-18.

JoeP

[GTX]

USAF (To replace F106, F15/F16 instead)

The push to have the F-14 replace the F-106 in USAF service took place in the early 1970s.  The US Air Force was after an "Improved Manned Interceptor (IMI)" for continental defense, and Grumman modified one of the Tomcat mockups to demonstrate a solution based on the Tomcat. This concept featured conformal fuel tanks to provide considerably extended range. The USAF found this proposal attractive because of its very long range and the capabilities of its AN/AWG-9 fire control system and its associated AIM-54 Phoenix missiles. However, the IMI F-14 proposal was ultimately defeated by its high cost, and nothing ever got off the drawing board:

The USN has taken the plane out of service now

It's interesting considering that the Iranians have apparently kept their F-14s in good condition (including the AN/AWG-9 fire control system and its associated AIM-54 Phoenix missiles) and have even started giving the airframes overhauls. 

For many years the west has had the mistaken belief that the F-14s were rapidly deteriorating and only a few were kept flying through cannibalising the rest - apparently this is all untrue and in recent years the US pilots in Iraqi and off carriers in the area have encountered more and more F-14s.

Regards,

Greg

[Matt Wiser]

Check ACIG.org: the story of the Soviet F-14 is an urban legend. Folks there have gone over the story and it was found out to be a Photoshop fake. The only F-14 to defect was to Iraq in 1986, the pilot defected, but the RIO didn't go along, and the U.S. personnel waiting at Talil AB simply handed the RIO over to the Iraqis as a POW. The plane was flown to Saudi, taken apart, and what wasn't sent to CONUS was taken to a RSAF bombing range and blown up. (three F-4s also made the trip, and one of them was in so bad shape it was left at Talil's dump. 3rd ID found the plane when they overrran Talil in '03.

Any additional export customers for F-14s would've made Grumman very happy; they had patches for the aircraft done up for Canada, Japan, and West Germany; I'll post them as soon as I find them on my hard drive.

The first two USMC squadrons were supposed to be VMFA-122 and VMFA-531. Two additional squadrons were also to convert. Their F-4s had already been sent to other units, maintenance folks were starting F-14 training, and aircrews were in ground school on the F-14 when the USMC Commandant cancelled the F-14, preferring to wait for the Hornet. A lot of very angry Marine pilots and NFOs were in the Miramar O-club when that happened....some say it's a miracle the place was still standing after those leathernecks drank their sorrows at not flying Tomcats away. The reasoning was that at the time, the F-14 was a pure air combat aircraft, and the Marines want aircraft that can do both ACM and CAS/BAI. This was 1975.

The two NORAD CINCs who wanted F-14s preferred the baseline version, not the mockup Grumman built; just change the refueling to the flying boom, AF oxygen systems, and that's it.

The F-14 was demo'd to the RAF, Luftwaffe, Canadian AF, JASDF, RSAF, RAAF, Spanish AF, and the IDF/AF.  

[BillSlim]

The F-14 was demo'd to the RAF, Luftwaffe, Canadian AF, JASDF, RSAF, RAAF, Spanish AF, and the IDF/AF.

I remember the Americans offered it as an alternative to the Tornado F.3, but I think the RAF said "How much!" when they found out how expensive the aircraft would be to support.

[Matt Wiser]

If there'd been additional customers besides the USN and IIAF, the costs associated with the aircraft would have gone down. The Hook magazine (from the Tailhook Association) had a pair of RAF exchange pilots who flew the F-14 with VF-101, and those two actually preferred the F-14 to the Tornado F: range was about the same, but the weapons system was well ahead of the Tornado, and the Tomcat was much more manuverable. Since both aircraft had a similar mission: killing Soviet bombers at long range away from either the Fleet or shore, the F-14 would've suited the RAF admirably. Had the CVA-01 program gone ahead, the Royal Navy would also have taken a look at the F-14.

Here's the first patch that Grumman had for export F-14s: these three are the only ones I have, but if I find more, they will be posted: First up is Japan

[Matt Wiser]

Second one: Canada.  

[Matt Wiser]

Final what-if patch: West Germany.  

[Arc3371]

If you get a F-14 for Christmas, heres some inspiration.

The F-14 IMI

[Lawman]

The nice thing, of course, with using the fixed wing Tomcat is the potential of the wings for fuel and weapons. It should be possible to carry four Phoenix on the fuselage, four Sparrows on the wing shoulder hardpoints, and four Sidewinders on the outer and wingtip hardpoints; or four Sparrows, four 2000lb weapons, and four Sidewinders. This could potentially put it in the same class as the F-111, especially if given the better F-100/F-101/F-110 engines.

A while ago I looked at the possibility of a fixed wing F-14, basically adapting a Flanker wing to the F-14 body and this is the result:

[Lawman]

At that rate, we could have seen no F-15 at all, with the Air Force getting Tomcats, perhaps with the long range conformal tank proposed to them. We then see a version of the F-16 developed in a naval form, as a direct replacement for the Vought A-7 Corsair, thus giving the USAF and USN a completely common fighter fleet. In the '80s, a bomber variant of the Tomcat, i.e. Bombcat, is developed (in lieu of the F-15E), perhaps even as an A-6 replacement (better engines, and a huge fixed wing gives you good capability). Carrier airwings then transition from:

2 F-14 Squadrons
2 A-7 Squadrons
1 A-6 Squadron

to

2 F-14 Squadrons
2 F-16-Naval Squadrons
1 F-14E Bombcat Squadron

There are then wonderful opportunities, e.g. jammer Tomcats, or alternatively, the A-6 could continue on in the specialised strike role, e.g. EA-6Bs, KA-6s, or perhaps even just stay at full squadron strength in each airwing. Another option would be to build a replacement for both the S-3 and A-6, perhaps as a regional bomber (rugged airframe, good size bomb bay, wing stored etc), maybe using a pair of non afterburning GE F-110s.

[KJ_Lesnick]

The Airforce just stuck with it I guess, similar to how the Navy stuck with the TF30s for the F-14 until the GE F110 came into play (well that and the AF just loves P&W). The F110 started life as the F101DFE derived from the B-1's F101 & was meant to power both the F-14 in lieu of the TF30 & the F-16 in place of the F100. While the Navy canned the F401, the AF stuck with the troubled F100 & eventually ironed out the kinks.

Then why couldn't the USN have "stuck with it" like the USAF did?  The F-100 would have been available by 1972 (when the F-15 first flew)

At that rate, we could have seen no F-15 at all, with the Air Force getting Tomcats, perhaps with the long range conformal tank proposed to them. We then see a version of the F-16 developed in a naval form, as a direct replacement for the Vought A-7 Corsair, thus giving the USAF and USN a completely common fighter fleet. In the '80s, a bomber variant of the Tomcat, i.e. Bombcat, is developed (in lieu of the F-15E), perhaps even as an A-6 replacement (better engines, and a huge fixed wing gives you good capability). Carrier airwings then transition from:

2 F-14 Squadrons
2 A-7 Squadrons
1 A-6 Squadron

to

2 F-14 Squadrons
2 F-16-Naval Squadrons
1 F-14E Bombcat Squadron

There are then wonderful opportunities, e.g. jammer Tomcats, or alternatively, the A-6 could continue on in the specialised strike role, e.g. EA-6Bs, KA-6s, or perhaps even just stay at full squadron strength in each airwing. Another option would be to build a replacement for both the S-3 and A-6, perhaps as a regional bomber (rugged airframe, good size bomb bay, wing stored etc), maybe using a pair of non afterburning GE F-110s.

I'm not sure that would have worked.  The USAF was pretty adamant about what they wanted in the F-15.  They wanted a one-man flight crew and more advanced electronics and such to enable the plane to be easily flown with a one man crew.  I'm not sure exactly if the USAF had this attitude from the get-go, or early on. 

I can't guarantee if they would have rejected the early USN designs, if the USN came out with something more like the F-15U, but it would have been a twin-seater anyway.  The USN to my knowledge was not as good at getting money out of the US Gov't as the USAF was, and seemed to have no desire to have a single-seat F-14. 


KJ_Lesnick