Key Points and Summary: The F-14 Tomcat, popularized by the movie Top Gun, was a formidable interceptor equipped with the long-range AIM-54 Phoenix missile, designed to destroy large, slow Soviet bombers.
-However, the Phoenix was ineffective against maneuverable fighter aircraft.
-The US Navy retired the F-14 in 2006, replacing it with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which utilizes shorter-range, but more versatile, AIM-120 missiles.
-Iran, the only other F-14 operator, achieved some success with the Phoenix against Iraqi aircraft, but its aging fleet is now facing retirement.
-The F-14 remains a legend, but its limitations highlight the evolving nature of aerial warfare.
Beyond Top Gun: The Real Story of the F-14 Tomcat
Ever since 1986’s famous Hollywood film TOPGUN, the world seems to have had an endless love affair with the famous Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
The retirement of the aircraft from US Navy service in September 2006 had many asking the question of what this would do to Naval Aviation – and what would the aircraft carriers it flew off of do without the F-14 there to protect it.
The aircraft’s armament and avionics suite were technological marvels in their day. The Hughes Air Weapons Group AN/AWG-9 radar had a range of over 200 miles, limited in that range only by the size of its antenna array.
The AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile (AAM) was another unheard-of weapon at the time. It had a range exceeding 100 miles in its last variants and was the first US AAM to be capable of active homing.
An aircraft that could down targets over 100 miles away was something that seemed unbeatable in its day.
No other fighter aircraft could match that kind of intercept envelop, many thought. So, the question was why other services or other aircraft were not being similarly equipped.
Why was the AWG-9/Phoenix combination exclusive to the US Navy?
Real Mission Profiles
Part of the reason was expense. The radar and the missile were high-priced in that era and would not be considered cheap acquisitions even today.
But the greater reason was that in an age of more fighters with the longer range needed to reach the US aircraft carriers the AIM-54 was not enough of an AAM to kill other fighter aircraft.
In a long discussion years ago with a former F-14 pilot he recalled the mission profile for the F-14 and its weaponry.
“The Phoenix missile – what was it designed for? It was supposed to be able to shoot down the Soviet [Tu-22M] Backfire bombers that the Soviets would use to launch long range cruise missiles to kill the carrier,” he explained.
“It had to shoot down the Backfire before it got within range of the carrier and could launch those cruise missiles.” These anti-ship missiles were primarily the Raduga Kh-22 (AS-4) models that were replaced only in 2016 by the Kh-32.
“But what was the Backfire and its flight profile,” said the same pilot. “Compared to an opposing fighter aircraft it was this slow-moving lumbering target that could not maneuver, could not turn sharply, could not do anything to avoid an incoming AAM.”
Naval Air Station Oceana, Va. (Sept. 25, 2004) – An F-14D Tomcat assigned to the “Black Lions” of Fighter Squadron Two One Three (VF-213), conducts a high-speed pass at the conclusion of the tactical air power demonstration at the 2004 “In Pursuit of Liberty,” Naval Air Station Oceana Air Show. The demonstration showcased multiple F-14 Tomcats and F/A-18 Hornets displaying various maneuvers and simulated bomb and staffing passes in front of the crowd. The air show, held Sept. 24-26, showcased civilian and military aircraft from the Nation’s armed forces, which provided many flight demonstrations and static displays. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain (RELEASED).
“But the Phoenix had no chance of intercepting and taking down another fighter aircraft at the hands of a skilled pilot,” he concluded.
“This is why every time the US Navy fired a Phoenix at another fighter all we ever did was bomb the water.”
Highlighting that claim is the fact that in the two most famous encounters between the F-14 and Soviet-design aircraft, the 1981 and 1989 Gulf of Sidra incidents, the Libyan Air Force aircraft were brought down by the shorter-range AIM-7 and infrared (IR)-guided AIM-9 AAMs.
Even the missiles fired in TOPGUN that were shown coming off the launcher rails of an were of an AIM-7 – the same AIM-7 – in every one of those movie frames.
The Islamic Republic and the F-14 Tomcat Fighter
The one country to successfully use the AIM-54 in air-to-air combat was Iran, which is, not coincidentally, the only other nation that ever operated the F-14. Flying against an Iraqi Air Force that frequently employed primitive tactics with inferior Russian-made aircraft against pilots unskilled in air combat maneuvering they scored around 62 air-to-air kills with the Phoenix.
While in Iran in the early 200os I had the chance one time to speak to one of the aces from that war, General Yadollah Khalili, who holds the world’s record for a 12-hour mission in the F-14 – a mission that required multiple refuellings. He was one of only 5 fellow pilots to have four kills with the F-14 in the conflict.
“We were frequently outnumbered in these dogfights,” he recalled. “In one engagement I was outnumbered – I was totally defensive. I actually flew canopy-to-canopy with an Iraqi pilot at one point like the Tom Cruise scene in TOPGUN. The guy was so close that I could literally the pilot’s clipboard attached to his upper thigh and could see the notes he had written on it.”
After The Tomcat
The F-14s in Iranian service are so old now that they are too being retired. Only about two dozen of the original 79 aircraft are still operational, and their radars and other on-board systems are tremendously difficult to keep running, according to defense industry officials I spoke to in Iran in 2018.
An F-14 Tomcat fighter jet takes off from the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft
carrier in the Gulf April 2, 2003. Two aviators from the carriers F-14
squadron “Black Knights” were forced to eject during a mission over
Iraq yesterday when both of their engines went down due to a mechanical
failure. The pair was rescued by an Air Force Combat Search and Rescue
Team. REUTERS/Paul Hanna
PH
What they will do in the future is unknown. The US Navy, however, long ago adopted the tactics of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, and with the use of progressively longer-ranged and active-homing AIM-120 AAMs, the aircraft takes care of the fleet defense mission that the F-14 used to perform.
The F-14 Tomcat was an impressive platform in its day, but like many other fighter aircraft, it is part of history now.
F-14 Tomcat: A Story in Pictures
F-14 Tomcat. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
An F-14 Tomcat fighter jet takes off from the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in the Gulf April 2, 2003. Two aviators from the carriers F-14 squadron “Black Knights” were forced to eject during a mission over Iraq yesterday when both of their engines went down due to a mechanical failure. The pair was rescued by an Air Force Combat Search and Rescue Team. REUTERS/Paul Hanna.
Grumman F-14D(R) Tomcat (A20040156000) on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Photograph by Dane Penland. [2006-24265]
F-14 Tomcat. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
A U.S. Navy F-14D Tomcat aircraft from Fighter Squadron 31, sits on the flight line after completing its final flight at Naval Base North Island, San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 29, 2006. After 36 years of service, the Tomcat is being replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
