The last public appearance of the F-14 Tomcat

Navy news ^

[Heatseeker]

Howdy - gee what a surprise you're on this thread. ;)

I have a question - did the IIAF Tomcats come with the Phoenix missles?

[F14 Pilot]

Yes!

[newzjunkey]

I miss watching them fly by practicing touch downs when I was a kid.

[F14 Pilot]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/ACHILESE/W4T.jpg

http://users.skynet.be/exotic.planes/pictures/iran/F_14formation_jpg.jpg

[AGreatPer]

I have no idea where I was. I have been to so many soccer tournaments they all run together. But one time there were these jets taking off all the time. Yes, it was the F-14. Many times I would lose complete concentration on my players. Thats not good as a coach. But these planes were awesome.

Where was I? Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas? They had 12 soccer fields there.

[spetznaz]

How many Tomcats do the Iranians have, and how have they managed to keep them maintained and flying through 2.5 decades of the US not sending even a single repair part to Iran? They cannot have been cannibalising parts for two and a half decades, could they? And what about the weapons?

[AGreatPer]

Im thinking it was Virginia because there was an airport next to another airport.

There is no sound in the world like those planes taking off.

[lentulusgracchus]

I have a question - did the IIAF Tomcats come with the Phoenix missles?

'Fraid so, dude. Theirs are probably junk by now, but the KGB got hold of one eventually (they got a complete F-14A from the Iranians first, courtesy of a KGB-engineered defection, but he flew his aircraft over slick), and today it's in production for the Russian AF and for the Chinese PLAAF, mated to the Su-27/30/33 "Tomcatsky" series.

Once the F-14D's are withdrawn from service, the Chinese PLAAF will have range advantages in both their a/c and their weapon systems. Not good, y'all.

Some guys kicked an idea around FR a year or two ago to purchase Russian-built Su-33's for the Fleet Air Arm as an interim measure until F-22's could begin to be delivered. Didn't think that idea would go anywhere, and it didn't.

Let's have a round of applause, shall we, for Dick Cheney, who as SecDef ordered the jigs and dies for the F-14 cut up to show Grumman Aviation how tough we were on budget-cutting? No, really. He did that. And Poppy -- an old Navy aviator himself -- went along with it. Really.

That's why there was never an "E" or "F" or Tomcat "G" model.

Now, why did Big Dick Cheney really do it? I'm all ears, if anyone knows.

And while we're on the subject of the F/A-18's being outranged and outclassed by a factor of two even before they launch a weapon, does anyone know if the Navy has successfully mated the AIM-54 Phoenix to the Super Hornet, or are we going to retire our rangiest AAM as well, to make the mismatch as complete as possible?

This is all a clever plan to lure the Chinese into acting from overconfidence, right? Somebody tell me that's right, that we've got a secret plan, or that we've already got 300 F-22's sitting under tarps at Davis-Monthan, painted up to resemble old F-18's or something.

[F14 Pilot]

44 air worthy tomcats!

Well, they have been able to get many spare parts through some third parties.

And they also seem to be successful in reverse engineering and have produced some AIM-54A missiles.
However, during Iran-Contra, they got whatever they needed!

However, they had tried to install HAWK SAM on F-14s in late 1980s which failed though!

[mcgiver38]

No way they could have kept them up, if they would get airborne I would guarantee their RADAR wouldn't work, even if they could get parts the test equipment required was pretty well destroyed when we pulled out, they smashed it with an ax and lit it on fire, no way it could have recovered from that. There was a black market ring busted in the late 80s on the Kitty Hawk that was selling them parts, after that I think it was pretty well shut down. Guess what will be the first to go when we hit them.

[F14 Pilot]

Theirs are probably junk by now, but the KGB got hold of one eventually

---

This never happened!

[F14 Pilot]

how are you sure?

[mcgiver38]

I heard he had a personal thing for the Grumman management, personnaly drove a stake throught the heart of the program....

[Doofer]

How many Tomcats do the Iranians have.....

The last time I was in the Gulf about seven years ago they had half a dozen of so. But the thing is they can still fly. The real question is can they do the mission they were designed for? I'd be willing to bet they don't even come close....

[mcgiver38]

Because the plane, beautiful as it was, broke almost every flight in one way or another, especially the RADAR. I don't think with the minimal training we gave them they would be able to fix it. Some of it was pretty damn hard to fix, even for those of us that did it for years.

[F14 Pilot]

Iranians overhaul their tomcat fleet!

[lentulusgracchus]

I saw one of the very first examples at Norfolk Naval Base in late spring or early summer, 1972. I also saw one of the first AV-8's practicing vertical hovering at that same base. That's a long, long career for both types, when you compare them with how long other types like the Douglas F-4D Skyray and Grumman F-9F Panther lasted, or the A-5/RA-5 Vigilante, which was one of the hottest-looking aircraft the Navy ever flew.

[mcgiver38]

They are discussing why they cant fix the transmitter! :)

[F14 Pilot]

Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units In Combat