F14 Tomcat?

Question

I got a few questions :)

1. Why did they stop making F14?
2. Why countries else has F14?
3. What war did we use the F14?
4. Is the F15, F18, and etc beyond 14 better than the F14 Tomcat?

Answer 1

because it is expensive to maintain... iran uses the f-14, back in the day we sold it to them, the f-14 was used in desert storm and i think patrol no fly zones...f-18 is not as fromidable in air to air combat, but excels in ground attack. the f-15s were designed specifically for air superiority so they're better too... the f-15 eagle can attack both ground and air targets so..... heres a lil info sight...

Answer 2

The F14 entered service in 1974, it's not a new plane any more. So it's been replaced by newer aircraft. Also, since it was introduced the US military has opted for more multi-role aircraft. Especially the Navy, since it's nice to have the extra flexibility when you have limited space for aircraft.

As far as I know the only country other than the US to use the F14 was Iran. They bought them before the Shah of Iran was overthrown by the current hardline muslim regime.

The F-14 saw action in small incidents near Libya in the 80's when Gadafi was trying to claim international waters as his territory. It was also used in the fleet protection role during Desert Storm.

The F14 and F15 are roughly equivalent in capabilities. Not identical, but close. The 15 has slightly better performance, but the 14 carries a very impressive radar and the super long range Pheonix missile. The 16 and 18 are newer, multi-role aircraft. Not better as a fighter, but able to do other missions more effectively.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The Tomcat was deemed to expensive to operate.The Navy can save money by having the newer versions of the f-18 take over the f-14 missions. The only other country flying F-14's was Iran.

The F-14 flew against Lybia and over the Bekka valley in Lebanon and in the Persian Gulf for Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom.

The F-15 and F-18 are not really better than the Tomcat, but we don't need all three and the F-14 was more expensive to operate.

Answer 4

the tomcat is an expensive aircraft to build. the DOD contract was satisfied and thus no more were built.

iran has a few tomcats in their inventory, they were sold to iran before the fall of the shah of iran. iran is having trouble though getting spare parts for the aircraft though, and they are first generation tomcats, so they dont have the avionics and software packages of the later model planes.

the tomcat saw action starting in the mid 70's when they entered squadron service, and flew until late last year when they were taken out of service due to the expense of maintaining the aircraft and its systems. the tomcat saw service in the gulf as well as in afghanistan.

the eagle is an excellent aircraft, and was designed as an air superiority fighter. the hornet and the fighting falcon both are excellent lightweight dogfighters, as well as ground attack aircraft. the eagle and the tomcat both have ground attack modes, as well as air to air capability. the big difference between the two is that the tomcat was designed more with fleet defense in mind, and to that end was the only aircraft in the inventory that could launch the phoenix missle system. the tomcat also has limited command and control capability due to its powerful radar, and the second crewman. tomcats and eagles would regularly dogfight in intersquadron engagements, with equal results. remember that the man is more important than the machine. you can take an F86 from the korean war, and put a good pilot in it, and kill F14's and F15's with mediocre pilots, despite the advantages of the newer technology.

one other advantage the tomcat has over the eagle, the tomcat can land on a postage stamp in the middle of the ocean, the eagle needs a long concrete runway.

Answer 5

1- The F14 was originally designed as a "NexGen" evolution of the F4. Both aircraft were intended to intercept Soviet bomber formations, before they reached the carrier battlegroup. They also had the mission to escort carrier strike packages to their targets. Given this mission, both had long-range missiles (AIM7 for F4, AIM54 for F14), a powerful radar for Beyond Visual Range (BVR) engagements; and for the F14 the ability to engage up to six targets simultaneously (though this was only tested once-at that test was inconclusive), and an internal ECM suite. As a result of the Vietnam and Israeli air wars, the F14 was designed to have variable-geometry wings-and an internal gun. Both measures were to assist in close-in fights.
With the end of the Cold War, the threat of Soviet strikes on US carrier battlegroups went away. The AIM54 was never of much use for other than hitting bombers (it's HUGE, had a very large visual signature-so it would've been relatively easy for a fighter-type aircraft to see it and maneuver). Also the BVR capability was never going to be used-given the rules of engagement prevalent throughout the 70s-90s. With the new Soviet fightrers coming on line MiG29/Su27, it was in danger of becoming obsolescent. It also became very expensive and time-consuming to maintain: availability rates dropped to 65% (compared with 90-95% for other fighters). The F18 had all the CAP/escort ability of the F14, with one fewer crew member, and better avionics.
2- Pre-revolutionary Iran bought some F14s. Theoretically, they were to intercept Soviet bombers flying over Iran to the Arabian gulf, though in reality it was a political deal between Nixon and the Shah. It did have the advantage of keeping the production line open, and reducing the per-unit price of the jet.
3- The first combat use was actually going to be Vietnam, had the US remained until the end of 1975-as it agreed to. It was used in combat in Libya in 1982 and again in 1984. Gulf Wars I/II, Bosnia, Kosovo. A long and very distinguished record. I should note that contrary to some opinions here, the F14 DID have air/ground capability, and was used in those missions in Kosovo, and Gulf War II.
4- In an air-air visual-range engagement, the answer's Yes. The F15 was in fact designed for the same mission as the F14 (BVR engagements/air superiority) though just as the REAL mission of the F14 was to intercept Soviet bombers, the F15s designed mission was to intercept MiG25s. The key limfacs of the F14 in a eyeball engagement were:
a: It's very large, much larger than a F15 (which isn't a tiny aircraft itself) let alone an F16/Typhoon/F18/F22
b: It's engines smoke at full military power. This is max-throttle without going into afterburner. A lot of commentators talk about, "best guy not best plane", or better radar etc. This old fighter guy can tell you, that's a lotta hype: THIS is a serious limfac. I know, I was schwacked on more than one occasion in the F4-because the opposition could Visual ID us because of the smoke trail.
c: Limited maneuverability. Sure it could turn inside a MiG21, but it really couldn't keep up with an F15 at altitude.

Answer 6

the reason the tomcat production was stopped is one
of money. it was too expensive. its role as a fleet defence fighter was replaced by the smaller and cheaper(relatively speaking) f/a-18 hornet. the tomcat was at the time the best fighter as defined for the mission it was assigned.that was
fleet defence. the f-15 is an air force fighter that has a different mission. it was designed as an air superiority fighter
and is based on land.
the f-16 is another low cost fighter that is way more manuverable than the tomcat. the tomcat can defeat the f-16 only at long range. in a dogfight the f-16 wins.
the tomcat is still used by iran but only a very few are flight ready as spare parts are hard to get.
the f-15's were adapted for fighter/bomber roles as the f-15e
strike eagle replacing the retired f-4 phantom II.
in the end the tomcat was not as flexible and thus was cancelled and ultimately retired.

Answer 7

1. The F-14 is an unusually expensive plane to maintain and repair, partly due to the large number of parts designed specifically for it and not used on other fighters, but largely due to the sweeping wings which add hundreds of mechanical parts to the design that other planes don't have. Plus, as a 20+ year old design, it wasn't as dominant as it originally was, and all of its roles could be filled with cheaper and smaller models (like the F-16 and F-18).


4: The F-15 is superior to the F-14 in air-to-air combat overall (the F-14's missile system works better at extremely long range, but would lose badly if the F-15 closed in), but has virtually no air-to-ground capabilities and cannot launch from a carrier. Therefore, they were never really competing with each other for a job.

The F-16 works better for air-to-ground missions, but wasn't as good air-to-air (largely due to it not having the hyper-specialized radar system and Phoenix missiles, and not being as mauveurable).

The F/A-18 was largely an attempt to make a replacement for the F-14 and F-16. Ultimately, it ended up being "jack of all trades, master of none", but with the lack of other air-superiority opponents in the post-Cold War era, that really was enough to make it a success.

The F/A-22 is practically just an F-15 with stealth capabilities and very minor air-to-ground capabilities (which likely will rarely be used since the F-117A and B2 do stealth air-to-ground much better). Hard to hit and hyper agile, price is about the only thing that might keep these from completely replacing the F-15.

And then there's the F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter), with its variations for each of the Armed Forces. It's overall shape and focus on ground support is similar to the F-16.

Answer 8

the F 14 for the time it was around was a awsome air to air fighter due to the swing-wing ,but Very limited as far a ground attack aircraft and better and newer Avionics came about and was very unreal to retro fit the older f14 and the air frame that was the hornet -f-18/ super hornet f/a 18 was more useful for more attack options. the hornets were and are a great air to air or ground attack aircraft that was very well suited for carrier duty --- especially the F/A -18 super hornet. The F15 as a aircraft due to the fixed wings was better suited as a ground tactical aircraft and could not be fitted for carrier duty and is land based. and as far as what war we used it in it was used in grenada and both gulf conflcits. it unfortunalty has out lived its life and will be retired.

Answer 9

1. Newer, better available
2. Iran
3. Both Gulf Wars
4. Apples and oranges here. The F-15 is strictly the Air Force. The F-14 is Navy F-18 replaces F-14.

Answer 10

It was replaced by better aircraft. The only real advantage of the Tomcat is the ability to carry the Phoenix missile. That capability has not been replaced.

Answer 11

presently the F-14 continues to be being stood down type energetic service. while it somewhat is complete, we are able to in all probability scrap 50% of them (titanium is expensive, and the F-14 makes use of plenty). something will circulate right into a bone backyard in case we'd desire to sell them to an best buddy (no longer likely). we should not be liberating them for inner maximum use every time quickly. Northrup Grumman made the 'Cat, and the army flew them, no longer the Air stress. And no militia airplane is offered to civilians with complete militia function intact, until it somewhat is hopelessly out of date.