Forum: Air Power

We never had one anyway, so it's no loss on the USAF's end. The USN operates Tomcats, and operated the Phoenix missile. Like I was saying earlier in this thread though, the Phoenix was really a wolf in sheep's clothing. The USN never fired one in anger, and the Tomcat will be out within about a year. The Super Bug will do just fine with Sidewinders and AMRAAMs.

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

F-16.net Sponsor

usaf is going to retire the f-14 Question

anyways i really like the f-14 and im 13 just like my screenname says i wanna be in the air force.e-mail me please. Very Happy

Really the navy will retire the Tomcats...? D*mn, I like them... no more than the F-16, but still...

usafighter_pilot_wanna_be wrote:

usaf is going to retire the f-14 Question

anyways i really like the f-14 and im 13 just like my screenname says i wanna be in the air force.e-mail me please. Very Happy

Actually, it's a US Navy fighter only. PS - we can't see your email address Wink

.

This is my first post on this thread but I figure I would clear some stuff up for you guys.
Aim-54A/C have allways been ARH fire and forget..

First of all the Iranians still operate some F-14s through. Rumor has it that they have had upgrades to the engins to Lyulka AL-31Fs and R-73 capibility.

Also Aim-54Cs have been fired in anger by the USN in 1994 by F-14Ds in the No fly Zone at Mig-25s. The missed but get credited with a kill because the Mig-25s made a 180 and ran. End result one wrecked their engin as a result of over speed and crashed where the Aim-54s followed it into the ground. The other crashed at low altitude for the suspected same reason. This goes further to prove the Iraqi knowledge of the Aim-54. Keep in mind that the Aim-54C is some 900 km/h faster than the A model which killed a Mig-21 from 93 miles in the iran Iraq war.

As for maintence Iranians should have just a hard time with their F-14s as the USN seeing how the grummen plant was force closed and no spare parts came after 1993 and they operate on a very very heavy flying schedule. This is the large part of the reason that the F-14 has had maintence issues.

As far as performance. Currently the F-14D is the best performing fighter in the US inventory. Compair to the F-15C the F-14D has far better acceleration, High-Alpha flight handling (including far higher Alpha limits of +90 degrees and -50 degrees), slow-speed handling, better sustained and instantaneous turn rates, lower wing-loading, far better lift-to-drag ratio, nearly the same thrust-to-weight ratio, very nearly the same structural G-limits (-3G's, +8.5G's or better), and it's probably just as agile, if not a little better due to its GEC-Marconi-designed digital Fly-By-Wire flight control system. And on top of all that, it's got an extremely long-range Infrared Search And Track System that can even be used to guide intercepts with the Phoenix missile out to 100+nm. And best of all, it has a second crewmember. Also with 4 Aim-120s in test it was able to supercruse. That ability with the APG-71, would allow it to toss an Aim-120 further than any Viper drive could ever dream

With a loadout of say 2 Aim-54Cs, 4 Aim-120s and two Aim-9Xs no aircraft currently in the world could touch it with the exception of the F-22. ( I know that the Aim-120 and Aim-9X are not in service with F-14s, this is due to funding cuts not Aircraft restrictions)

As for Iranian F-14As..If the upgrade issue is true.. and they can Avoid being blow to bits by B2s. They could pose major a tactical threat to any airforce

here are some pics of recent Iranian F-14s

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f ... 002407/p/3

Some interesting stuff here, so I'll post again.

No kills for the Tomcat in the No Fly Zones. Last official U.S. Tomcat A2A kill was an Mi-8 chopper in ODS. The MiG that went down in that NFZ incident ran out of gas when he was trying to land, after some Tomcats and Eagles missed the mark. The aerial kill sanctioning body does not recognize a kill when the aircraft is no longer being persued.

2nd crewmember is not necessarily a better thing. The Phoenix weapons system is so complex, it REQUIRED an extra set of paws. Eagle, Viper, Raptor, and some Hornet drivers do their fishing alone! Very Happy

Tomcats never carried the AMRAAMs operationally, but I have no info on the flight test program. The radar doesn't have anything to do with the missile's range. Possibly the ability to launch sooner, but if you are outside the missile's firing envelope, earlier firing ability won't mean much anyway. But trust me, the Viper can punch one out much sooner than any MiG or Su will want it to! Wink

The GE F110 is not equipped for supercruise. The P&W F119, built for the Raptor, is the only operational fighter engine which can do so.

The Eagle can still out-turn and out-accelerate the Tomcat. The Tomcat is heavier, has a wider turning radius, and can't sustain as many G's as the Eagle. Compared to that, the Raptor's performance will water your eyes.

Iranian Tomcat propaganda is merely an urban legend. They may have the reverse engineering capability, and the help of the Russians, yada yada yada, but I'll guarantee you won't see any of our boys shaking in the knees anytime soon, especially the Raptor guys.

Top Gun made the F-14 look really good, but its time has unfortunately come. The Super Bug is the new kid on the block.

Here's a couple sites to compare the Tomcat and Eagle specs:

http://www.anft.net/f-14/f14-specification.htm

http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=101

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

No operational F-14s have had a digital fly-by-wire FCS AFAIK. The F-14 is a late 60s design that is pre-FBY, meaning hydraulic/mechanical linkage from the stick to the control surfaces. Although many exotic (and useful) upgrades have been proposed for the Tomcat, very few actually made it into service, usually due to cost. Fun to talk about what could have been, though.

I have seen several F-14 demos, and I've never seen the high angle of attack performance displayed that the F/A-18 has.

Thanks for posting EasyE, but I'm not sure you cleared anything up.

They will need it if they attack Iran, Iranian Tomcats can still carry missile from about 50 "refurbished" Pheonix missiles by Iranian Industry.

KarimAbdoun wrote:

They will need it if they attack Iran, Iranian Tomcats can still carry missile from about 50 "refurbished" Phoenix missiles by Iranian Industry.

"They" who are you referring to?

To the US Navy, IF there were an attack on Iran

KarimAbdoun wrote:

To the US Navy, IF there were an attack on Iran

Ahh I see. Nope - we wouldn't need AIM-54's.

Quote:

Currently the F-14D is the best performing fighter in the US inventory. Compair to the F-15C the F-14D has far better acceleration, High-Alpha flight handling (including far higher Alpha limits of +90 degrees and -50 degrees), slow-speed handling, better sustained and instantaneous turn rates, lower wing-loading, far better lift-to-drag ratio, nearly the same thrust-to-weight ratio, very nearly the same structural G-limits (-3G's, +8.5G's or better), and it's probably just as agile, if not a little better due to its GEC-Marconi-designed digital Fly-By-Wire flight control system. And on top of all that, it's got an extremely long-range Infrared Search And Track System that can even be used to guide intercepts with the Phoenix missile out to 100+nm. And best of all, it has a second crewmember. Also with 4 Aim-120s in test it was able to supercruse. That ability with the APG-71, would allow it to toss an Aim-120 further than any Viper drive could ever dream

Yeah, sure Laughing

I will take some of your assertion:
-you said that TWR is "near the same". Well, let's see: the F 14 D has a weight (empty) of 19.811 t and two GE F 100-400 engines, delivering 25,380 kgf. So the TWR is 1.28... An F 15 C is 12.5 t and has two P&W F 100 engines delivering a total of 21.245 kgf. This would mean a TWR of 1.69...
-about the structural limmit. No F 14 (A, B, D) is allowed to go over 6.5 G today...
-no F 14 (even the "big engines" D) can't supercruise...

Not to mention that the Iranians don't have all the goodies the D models have (IRST, APG 71, and so on)

And for the upgrades the Iranian aircraft industry (notorious for the twin tail F 5 Laughing

) performed to their F-14, here is my comment: Laughing

Forum: Air Power

Navy Retires AIM-54 Phoenix Missile