Forum: F-16 versus XYZ

Hey there everyone. I am a Viper mechanic and was wandering the differences and pros/cons of this matchup.....I have the slightest idea of the F-14. I called my wife and she was watching Top Gun and made me think of that question. Thumb

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Isn't the F-14 a maintenance nightmare? Smile

Hey there guys Very Happy

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I feel the need, the need for speed Devil

!!!

Sorry, couldn't help myself there Wink

. OK, so a Tomcat vs Viper matchup huh? Maintenance wise, I hear the Viper wins hands down. The Tomcat was a royal pain according to everyone I talked to.

BVR, I think the Tomcat wins as long as it has good Phoenixes slung under the wing. Recently, the entire Phoenix program was cancelled. That left the Turkey with only Sparrows for BVR fighting. While chatting with a Tomcat and Super Hornet driver at Miramar, I found out that some Tomcats had gotten their @$$es handed to them down in Florida while flying against some Eagles and Vipers. It seems the Eagles and Vipers had AMRAAMs and the Tomcats only had Sparrows...

When it comes to WVR, I don't know. The tomcat isn't quite as agile as the Viper, but it has some serious power and great low speed handling (it is a carrier jet Wink

) if the fight gets slow. I love the Tomcat, but I think the Viper would most likely win in WVR unless you have a REALLY good pilot in the Turkey Very Happy

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I agree with parrothead, now that the Phoenix's are gone the Tomcat is gonna have trouble in BVR, and is screwed in WVR against a Viper. From info I've heard, the Tomcat is limited to or can't pull more than 8g's (please correct me if I'm wrong here folks) and it doesn't snap-turn as fast as a Viper.

Been there, done that... Viper wins in almost any category.

In close range, don't even get me started, the Tomcat is not far from the
F-4 and friends, while the viper is in a different generation altogether.
in BVR, ya the tomcat has some + sides but the newer block vipers
are very good to.

I'm not going to even start talking about avionics, handling, size etc'
its not realy a fair fight, the Viper is much better- seen it with my own eyes...

cheers.
fez.

It is academic! F-14 is phased out these days. Actually F-14 was good in one mission. Keeping Bears and Badgers as far of the fleet as possible. OK it is a Su-20 Killer but Su-20 is an attack plane after all.

After the Phoenix phazed out this would be a capable fighter/bomber with minor modifications but USN uses F/A-18 for that purpose. I cannot imagine how a Tomcat with Sparrows only could cope with a Falcon with AMRAAMS. Perhaps by using the AWG-9's long range, break a good 180 degrees and then using its superior speed to get the hell out of there Devil

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Forum Veteran Joined: Apr 16, 2005 - 03:16 PM Posts: 800

With a mix of phoenixes and AMRAAMs, the F-14D is still a very capable fighter..

It can not only fire its phoenixes first, but also its AMRAAMs because it can fly higher and faster than the viper, so it can give them more energy..

And of course it would avoid fighting WVR..

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With a mix of phoenixes and AMRAAMs, the F-14D is still a very capable fighter..

Right. But F-14s can't carry amraams...

Forum Veteran Joined: Apr 16, 2005 - 03:16 PM Posts: 800

The F-14D can carry AMRAAMs...

Sorry Viperalltheway, but Biggen's right on this one. The F-14A/B/D is not capable of firing the AIM-120 AMRAAM. Here's a link with more info.

http://www.topedge.com/panels/aircraft/sites/mats/f14-detail-aim120.htm

Forum Veteran Joined: Apr 16, 2005 - 03:16 PM Posts: 800

Personaly I've always heard that the F-14D could carry it.

Ex:

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The F-14D can carry the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile, (although configuration
isn't planned until 1994)

http://www.geocities.com/goose_topgun99/f-14.html
http://www.airtoaircombat.com/detail.asp?id=14
..

If you do a search you will find many links that say that.

Now why hasn't the navy armed them with AMRAAM I don't know. Maybe they prefered to give their AMRAAMs to the F-18s I don't know.

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Now why hasn't the navy armed them with AMRAAM I don't know.

Because it was going to be very expensive to modify the F-14s to do so and they knew they were going to retire the aircraft anyway. It would have been a total waste of money.

They did modify a few Tomcats to carry 120s for testing. I believe those jets all belonged to VX-9.

Forum Veteran Joined: Apr 16, 2005 - 03:16 PM Posts: 800

Were the F-14Ds new aircraft or upgraded F-14As?

Forum Veteran Joined: Dec 25, 2003 - 10:03 PM Posts: 679

D's were new, I thought the A+'s were upgraded. And yeah the Cat lost it's pheonix's some time ago. They had a test if any of you can recall where the cat launched all 4 ( or 6 ) of em and not all hit their target drones. The test cost like 36k a second if I can recall. Am I understanding that the Tomcat doesn't have a good BVR missle anymore?

I'd always heard that the A+s were renamed to B later on. The difference being the engine replacement between the two models. Just my input...

BTW, who can watch a movie with no less than 16 shower scenes?

-Aaron

Forum: F-16 versus XYZ

Viper and Tomcat showdown