Posted on 07/03/2007 4:24:12 PM PDT by IonImplantGuru
A mechanical monster grabs the F-14 fighter jet and chews through one wing and then another, ripping off the Tomcat's appendages before moving on to its guts.
Finally, all that's left is a pile of shredded rubble — like the scraps from a Thanksgiving turkey. Within a workday, a $38 million fighter jet that once soared as a showpiece of U.S. air power can be destroyed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home to the military's "boneyard" for retired aircraft.
The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to destroy old F-14s, a jet affectionately nicknamed "the turkey," rather than sell the parts at the risk of their falling into the wrong hands, including Iran's.
"There were things getting to the bad guys, so to speak," said Tim Shocklee, founder and executive vice president of TRI-Rinse Inc. in St. Louis. "And one of the ways to make sure that no one will ever use an F-14 again is to cut them into little 2-by-2-foot bits."
The Defense Department had intended to destroy spare parts unique to the F-14 but sell thousands of others that could be used on other aircraft. It suspended sales of all Tomcat parts after The Associated Press reported in January that buyers for Iran, China and other countries had exploited gaps in surplus-sale security to acquire sensitive U.S. military gear, including F-14 parts.
Among other tactics, middlemen for the countries misrepresented themselves to gain access to the Defense Department's surplus sales or bought sensitive surplus from U.S. companies that had acquired it from Pentagon auctions and weren't supposed to allow its export. Investigators also found some sensitive items accidentally slipping into surplus auctions rather than being destroyed as they were supposed to be.
Iran is the only country trying to keep Tomcats airworthy. The United States let Iran buy the F-14s in the 1970s when it was an ally, long before President Bush named it part of an "axis of evil."
Shocklee's company won a three-year, $3.7 million contract to render surplus equipment useless for military purposes. The work includes the recent demolition of 23 Tomcats in Arizona, accounting for about $900,000 of TRI-Rinse's contract. The military is considering using the same process on its other F-14s.
The company has developed portable shredding machinery so the Pentagon can have sensitive items destroyed on a base instead of shipping them long distances to be shredded. The Tomcat was a strike fighter with a striking price tag: roughly $38 million. By the 1980s it was a movie star with a leading role in the Tom Cruise classic "Top Gun." But as the planes are mangled into unrecognizable metal chunks, the jets with a 38-foot wingspan appear small and vulnerable.
The shearing machine, which uses pincers to rip apart the planes, weighs 100,000 pounds. The shredder is 120,000 pounds. An F-14 weighs about 40,000 pounds.
Among the shredded victims in Arizona: a plane flown by the "Tophatters" squadron, which led the first airstrike in Afghanistan when the U.S. invaded in October 2001.
The Pentagon retired its F-14s last fall. At last count, the military's boneyard in Arizona held 165 Tomcats, believed to be the only ones left out of 633 produced for the Navy. The others were scavenged for parts to keep others flying, went to museums or crashed, said Teresa Vanden-Heuvel, spokeswoman for the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group.
As powerful as the grinding machinery is, it can't shred all of the F-14. The landing gear — built to withstand the force of slamming onto an aircraft carrier's deck — must be cut by hand with a demolition torch.
One of the last five F-14A Tomcats taxis into Tucson's Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center. The Navy plane made famous in the moving "Top Gun" was retired from military service in September 2004 and flown to its final desert resting place.
Iran had a large fleet of Tomcats and I'm sure they would love to get the parts to make those planes flyable again.
Did you have to show the picture of the F-14 being destroyed? It was an incredible platform. Wish some had been saved and hope the Iranians don`t have any that still fly.
Am I the only one who feels a bit sick when I see those beautiful birds being destroyed?
It is not like they have run out of room to store them.
A decade ago the Navy’s A-6’s were all made into octopuses’ gardens.
I.e. “artificial reefs.”
Yes, it's sad, but it is rational. The planes are old, and the technology is way behind the times. They were great for their time, but the technology has advanced, and so must naval aviation.
One nice thing if one works around TUS (Tucson Int'l) is that the guys in the tower regularly invite incoming 'last flight' birds to come on over for a low-level pass in review, after which the planes head over to D-M (about 5 miles NE) to their last landing.
If a plane is going into storage, the pilot and whoever is along for the ride will usually sign the fuselage under a 'goodbye' note ... but if AMARG is just going to grind up the bird right away, even that little grace note seems a bit futile.
If the cost to destroy them is more than the salvage income from the scrap metal, why don’t then simply remove engines, weapons and avionics (and any other spooky stuff) and give them to VFW and Legion posts, etc.
We have a B-52 (a Dog model, I believe) on display at Orlando International. She looks great.
Nice pic!
I agree that it's sad to see it, and it is certainly possible to mothball planes in the desert almost indefinitely. They seal all the openings with latex, replace the guel with oil to coat and protect engine parts, and then just park it. In the past, planes from AMARC have been restored to service in a matter of weeks.
But in order to make the Tomcat a feasible reserve plane, the Navy would have to keep a roster of aviators qualified to fly it. If the reserves were still using the -14, that wouldn't be too difficult. But maintaining enough planes to train new aviators and give existing aviators enough hours-in-type to stay sharp would be a waste of money.
Not to mention the waste of time and personnel to keep pilots current on a machine that is not in the active inventory. My understanding -- and others will correct me if I'm wrong -- is that pilots and aviators are assigned to a particular airframe, and that they spend all their training time on that one plane to stay as sharp as possible. Keeping pilots on the-14 means keeping them out of action, and we don't have a lot of folks to spare jut now.
I guess my dream of someday owning an old decommissioned fighter jet is growing dimmer.
A friend of mine had a MiG21, but he sold it.
What a waste. A sad, unnecessary waste. There must be a pylon to sit on or a gate to guard or a museum that has some space for everyone of the remaining F-14s. The PTB are supposedly worried that Iran is going to get some spare parts? C’mon, Iran could get new Sukhois and MiGs easier than replacement parts for their remaining F-14s. Cutting them up is a historical waste.
Clearly, for front line purposes this is so. Yet, the F-14 is still the equal of most other nations we might face and keeping a healthy number in reserve, maintained for reserve, would be prudent.
We should have a reserve and training program to enable us to quickly train personnel. Having a resever component could easily prove needed and prudent in years to come. Once they are shredded, you have no option.
RIP Tomcats, you didn’t get the respect you deserved. It's America's loss.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.