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Key Facts:
Wingspan
19,54 M un swept, 11,65 M swept, 10,15 M over swept.
Fuselage and tail Length: 19,10 M
Height: 4,88 M
Engine F-14A Two Pratt & Whitney TF30-P412A/414A
Engine F-14B/D Two General Electric F110-GE-400
Weight Empty: 18191 Kg.
Max. take off weight: 33724 Kg.
Speed Max. 2485 Kph.
Range Max. 3220 Km.
20 mm M61A-1 Vulcan rotary cannon with 670 rounds of ammunition
AIM-7M Sparrow
AIM-9M Sidewinder
AIM-54C Phoenix
AIM-120A AMRAAM
Mk 83 LDGP
Mk 84 LDGP etc.
The Tomcat can carry only conventional "dumb" bombs, and has no precision-guided ammunition capability, except when operating in conjunction with a separate laser designator aircraft
Countries where the F-14 is in service :
Iran 79 F-14A
we believe that some of the F-14A's are still flying, but we're not sure about the number.
United States
12 YF-14A
546 F-14A
38 F-14B
37 F-14D
Vietnam war: 1974-1975
The Tomcat was in service just in time to see the closing stages of the Vietnam war in 1975. It flew top cover during operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of US personnel from Saigon in April of 1975, just before that city fell to the north. The North Vietnamese Air Force did not interfere with the operation, but one Tomcat was slightly damaged by anti-aircraft fire.
Libya, Gulf of Sidra: August 1981
On August 19th, two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter-J fighters were shot down by a pair of VF-41 Tomcats after one of the Fitters fired a missile at the American fighters. Both kills were with the AIM-9L Sidewinder.
Urgent Fury: October 1983
The invasion of Grenada, TARPS (Reconnaissance Pod) equipped F-14's provided intelligence on troop movements for invading Marines and Army Rangers.
Hijacking Italian cruise ship Achille Laura: October 19th 1985.
The Hijackers had found refuge in Egypt, where arrangements had been made to fly them to sanctuary Libya aboard an Egypt Air Boeing 737. Seven Tomcats from VF-74 and VF-104 from the USS Saratoga (CV-60) intercepted the airliner and forced it to land at Sigonella in Italy.
Gulf of Sidra: March 24-26th 1986
Numerous strikes were carried out by navy carrier based aircraft against Libyan targets, with Tomcats flying top cover, keeping Libyan fighters at bay and dodging Sam's
Operation El Dorado Canyon: April 14th 1986
USAF Generall Dynamics F-111's attacking Tripoli (Libya) while navy strike aircraft went after Benghazi. The later raid was top-covered by F-14's.
January 4th 1989
Two F-14A's (159437 and 159610) from VF-32 flying of the John F. Kennedy (CV-67) shot down a pair of Libyan MiG-23 Floggers.
Persian Gulf: 1988-1989
There were some Sidewinders fired between US navy Tomcats and Iranian F-4 Phantoms during the oil tanker escort operations in the Persian Gulf, these launches were all well out of parameters, and scored no kills.
Operation Desert Storm: January 17th - February 28th 1991
Tomcats flew mostly CAP operations in protection of the fleets carriers and in the escort of strike packages. The Tomcats are credited with only one kill. A Mil Mi-8 Hip helicopter was shot down with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. One F-14 Tomcat was lost in action on January 21st when it was shot down by an Iraqi surface to air missile, the crew ejected safely.
History:
The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was invented in the 1970's. During that time it was the Vietnam War. The F-4 Phanton was getting replaced by the F-14 Tomcat. The F-14 had more speed, more manuverable, and it can fire at real long range. Although it was only good for Air-to-air, the U.S. Airforce and Navy made it capable of bombing. Though it was not accurate, people started calling it the Bombcat. When Vietnam War was over, the F-14 was upgraded to fly at high G forces and fly supersonic. The best dogfighter plane was invented. It was so good that in California, Top Gun was made and the top pilots can only attend. In Top Gun, they trained for real-life dogfights. You needed to learn every plane's name, what they're capable of, and how to combat them. The Top Gun teachers are the best of them all. They use opposing aircrafts like the F-18 or the Su-27 from Soviet Russia. They even painted it like the Russian way. They go against the top students in a supersonice dogfight like you've never seen before. First flew in December 21st 1970 , the F-14 armed with the powerful AWG-9 radar and AIM-54 Phoenix ,is one of the most powerful and lethal fighter / interceptor ever to serve in the US Navy. First served on the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). It saw actions from Libya to Bosnia and proved capable of completing its mission. Each Tomcat cost more than 40 millions dollars and is one of the most costsome plane in the US Navy. Given that whether or not you agree that F-14 is one of the Best fighters in the world . It is certainly one of the most magnificent aircraft to serve in the armed forces. The F-14 maybe retired at 2008 and replaced by the F-18 Super Hornet, but the F-14 like in the 1970's maybe uprgaded to suit futuristic flight and much cheaper then the F-18. As the cold war heats up in the 50's. The Americans realized that they needed a fighter/interceptor to protect its battle fleet from hostile targets such as enemy fighters and missiles from the Soviet Union.
To meet the Navy's requirement "Fleet Air Defense Fighter" Program was started. The requirement would to have a missile launcher aircraft able to stay in the air for a long period of time and be capable to take out multiple threats at any given time. The F6D-1 and XAAM-10 was selected but it would soon prove to be a failure. A fundamental problem was that the craft would become defenseless right after all missiles have been launched. This program was terminated at the end of 1960. To fulfil the Navy's requirement, the Navy would have to look else where for its fleet defender. Meanwhile the US Air Force was seeking to replace its F-105 Thunderchief, the Navy unwillingly joined up with the Air Force to form the TFX program (Tactical Fighter Experimental) under McNamara's direction.
McNamara, one of the " bright young man " brought into the government by JFK was horrified by the sheer cost of the arm race. He believed that with his expert business knowledge, he would be capable of combining various needs into one single system that could achieve minimum cost. Thus the policy of "Commonality" was born and the Navy was informed that its missile armed defense fighter would come in the form of F-111B. The US navy opposed to such plan, believing that F-111 could never meet their specification. Grumman, whose long experience of building carrier planes won the chief contractor, rapidly came to the same conclusion as they struggled to transform the F-111 into a navy fighter. The F-111B, amply fulfilled the worst prophecies, not only did it have little in common with the airframe used for its airforce cousine F-111A (land based version), its size and speed also made operation from all but the biggest American carrier impossible (The Navy wanted below 50,000 pound but McNamara demanded the navy to accept 55,000lb and later turned out to be in excess of 63,000lb.).
With the help of VADM Thomas F. Connoll, the congress official stopped all funding to the project, thus officially terminating the F-111B. (Much to everyone's relief)
Grumman immediately began a new design on a clean sheet of paper of a new lightweight fighter, bodily transfer from the F-111B includes the TF-30 engine, Hughes AWG-9 radar and Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix long range AAM. The F-14 was a totally new and uncompromised fighter. The selection process out of five submissions from Grumman, General Dynamics, Ling-Temco-Vought, McDonnel Douglas and North America Rockwell (4 of the 5 design involved sweep wings), Grumman's design was announced as the winner over McDonnel Douglas of the hastily contrived VFX program. The new airplane was an impressive looking machine. Its variable geometry wings was set high beside the 18.89 m fuselage, making a delta shape when fully swept back and blends with the tail planes. Equally distinctive were the twin fins that canted slightly outward. Less noticeably was the weight of the Tomcat that was 26,000 kg (56,320 LB). One of the most distinctive features of the Tomcat is the geometry sweep wing. It allows the Tomcat to have a tremendous advantage in air speed as wings solely designed for high speed does not perform well in low speed and vice versa. F-14 Tomcats was primary intended to be a fighter and interceptor/escort but possess a ground attack ability as its secondary role. The F-14 Tomcat is one of the most sophisticated fighter in the world, the AN/AWG-9 allows the RIO to track no less than 24 targets and fire 6 phoenix against the 6 most hostile target. The radar also allows track and scans up to 160 km. Impressive as the Phoenix might seem; it is only part of the Tomcats claw. The Tomcat can be fitted with 6 AIM-54, 6 AIM-7 Sparrow and 4 AIM-9 Sidewinders. The F-14D is capable of carrying CBU-59 and Rockeye. GBU-16 LGB and Gator mines are to be added soon while AGM 88 HARM ARM and SLAM ASMs are planned to be added to the Tomcat armory in the near future. The first of the 6 R&D prototype flew on 21 December 1970.The maiden flight was flow by Veteran Bob Smythe and Bill Miller. Unlike the F-111B, no attempt was made to achieve commonality with any aircraft and the need of the fighter sweep/escort, CAP (combat air patrol) and DLI (deck launch intercept) mission was given priority. The first Tomcat carrier landing was on CV-59 USS Forrestal and the delivery of the first combat Tomcat was made in June 1972 and the first deployment of VF-1 Wolf Pack and VF-2 Bounty Hunter (the first two squadron of the Tomcat) was on CVN-65 USS Enterprise also known as "The Big E". Apart from the US Navy, the only other known user is the Iranian Air Force. The Shah of Iran ordered 80 F-14A with modified electronic countermeasures equipment. The first 3 F-14 arrived in Iran in January 1976 but with the downfall of the Shah and the up rising of the revolutionary, Islamic and anti-American Iran 3 years later confirmed the worst fear of the people who cautioned against such a sale. The Carter Administration sanctioned the sale, and the status of the Iranian Tomcat and their power Phoenix missile remains unknown. The general consensus is that they are grounded due to lack of spare part and inexperienced aircrews.
Being one of the most expensive fighters in the US Military, Grumman had offered a new generation of Tomcats called Tomcat 21. Grumman claimed that Tomcat21 have major improvement in all areas and it also claimed to meet 90 % of the Navy ATF requirment and 60% of the cost. With the cancellation of A12A stealth attack fighter, Tomcat 21 was given a chance to be the next generation of US Navy fighter but with the introduction of the Super Hornet, Tomcat21 was sadly canceled.
My Favorite Plane's Pictures:
Awsome Kenards huh?
More coming soon I am tired of typing *Takes Deep Breath*
Credits:
Thank you to,
History Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Wings Channel
Books
and Websites.
(This was not plagurised, I put everything in my own words)
MultiQuote
I don't really like da raptor its replacing F-15 eagle my 2nd fave 
