Grumman F-14A Tomcat

The F-14A Tomcat is a two-seater, twin-engine aircraft with variable wing geometry and double vertical tail. This short description defines the modern combat aircraft of the US Naval Aviation.
As a result of a competition announced by the US Navy for a new deck plane, the legacy F-4 Phantom, the F-14 Tomcat as an interceptor, escort and strike fighter, entered the equipment of United States naval aviation in the seventies and eighties.

The F-14A prototype made its first flight on December 21, 1970, and the first aircraft entered service in 1974. The heart of the Tomcat weapons system is the ANG-9 radar by Hughes, working with the AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles. After the experiences of the Vietnam War, it was decided to additionally install a 6-barrel 20 mm M-ól Vulcan cannon in the front of the hull. The remaining armament of the Tomcat are bombs and rockets Sparrow and Siewinder. Tomcat planes are constantly being improved and are today the basic fighter plane of the American naval aviation.

The F-14 Tomcat embarked on the carrier USS "ENTERPRISE" during Operation Frequend Wind - evacuation of American and South Vietnamese personnel from Vietnam in April 1975 were the first to be engaged in combat. The VF-1 and VF-2 made combat patrols in the cover of the evacuation fleet. North Vietnamese airplanes did not attack American ships.

In early August 1981, the US Navy conducted exercises in the Gulf of Syria. The core of the combat team consisted of two aircraft carriers: the nuclear USS "Nimitz" and the USS "Forrestal". The American F-14s met Libyan MIG-23 and 21 and the Mirage F-1 many times, which tried to get to the combat patrol zone of the fleet. Libyan pilots flew provocatively. They took up positions convenient to launch rockets and approached the American planes. On August 19, 1981, two planes from the FV-41 squadron of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier patrolled the area north of the US Navy aircraft carriers. The radar operator of the patrol commander, Col. Harry "Hank" Kleeman - Lt. David Lentlet - discovered two fast approaching planes. Soon Kleeman saw two Libyan SU-22M-2 planes 13 km away. Approaching the Tomcat, one of the Libyan planes fired an AA-2 (Atoll) air-to-air missile that failed to hit any F-14. As a result of the fight, the Americans shot down both SU-22s.

A little-known topic is the participation of the Iranian F-14 in the war on Iraq. Iraqi sources say three F-14s were shot down. Two Iranian Tomcats are said to have fallen prey to the Iraqi Mirage F.1 and one - MIG-21. Iran announced the shooting down of one Iraqi Mirage F.1 and two MIG-21s by F-14s.

Another armed incident involving the F-14 took place in 1989. On January 4, 1989, two F-14s with two Libyan MIG-23s fought south of Crete. Tomcats from the VF-32 squadron (model painted from this squadron) of the aircraft carrier USS "John F. Kennedy" were on combat patrol outside the Libyan territorial waters. Libyan planes tried to take a convenient position to launch missiles. The commander of the US Navy patrol fired an AIM-7E Sparrow missile that missed the MIG. The second plane's attack was successful. The missile destroyed a Libyan plane. At that time, the patrol commander destroyed the remaining MIG with the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.

The site of the last operations of the F-14 aircraft was the war with Iraq in the Persian Gulf (Operation Desert Storm).

After the air attacks on targets in Iraq and Kuwait began, the F-14 were used to cover A-6E, A-7E, F / A-18 attack aircraft. Tomcaty also participated in the localization of the Iraqi Scud, Al-Abbas and Husein rocket launchers. On February 17, 1991, F-14A + from VF-1 squadron on board the USS Saratoga destroyed an Iraqi transport helicopter with an AlM-9 missile.

F-14A TOMCAT
TECHNICAL DATA AND PERFORMANCE:
Span max. (slant 20), m 19.54
Span min. in flight (68 ° slant), m 11.65
Span min. on the ground (slant 75), m 10.15
Length, m 19.10
Height, m 4.88
Empty weight, kg 18 191
Take-off weight max, kg 33 724
Landing weight, kg 23 510
Speed max. in high height, it is 2.34
Speed max. at a low height, it is 1.20
Landing speed on an aircraft carrier, km / h 288 Speed min. km / h 213
Max climb, m / s 152.3
Ceiling, m over 15 240
Min run-up, m 427
Min run, m, m 884
Range max. with fuel inside, approx. km 3220
Weapons - the Generak Electric M61A Vulcan six-barrel rotary cannon with a supply of 675 rounds.
Outboard armament - bombs, missiles, jamming devices and infrared reconnaissance devices - with a total mass of 6,577 kg.

 

The history of the design and the first prototype of the F-14 "Tomcat" on-board fighter plane dates back to the 1960s, when endless problems with adapting the F-111 fighter aircraft to the requirements of the Navy in 1968 forced General Dynamics to abandon work on this aircraft . At that time, the Grumman company began work on a completely new fighter, later designated as the F-14A "Tomcat". Regardless of this, the Navy issued an order for the creation of a new fleet fighter aircraft with specific objectives, such as the ability to defend the air fleet, attacking ground and surface targets, intercepting enemy aircraft, the ability to conduct combat air patrols in contact with the enemy, as well as the possibility of activities for 2 hours at a distance of 320 km from its aircraft carrier.

The new fighter was to carry 6,500 kg of firearms, primarily AIM-54 Phoenix long-range missiles, AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder medium and short-range missiles, as well as the M61A1 Vulcan cannon. Part of the equipment was to be taken over from the F-111B, incl. Hughes AWG-9 system that allows to detect a target at a distance of 241 km, track it and determine the distance from it.

Grumman has made an offer to assign this project to be developed. Other companies such as General Dynamics, Ling Temco Vought and North American Rocwell or even McDonnell Douglas were eliminated by Grumman due to his advanced work on the new fighter. Thus, on January 15, 1969, Grumman was announced the winner of the project. After winning the contract, Grumman accelerated the work on the prototype, in which the changes to the design were already visible. They concerned the replacement of a single vertical stabilizer with a double one and the permanent attachment of under-fuselage fins to ensure directional stability of the aircraft.

The first flight took place on December 21, 1970 in Calverton (Long Island), and in September 1974 on a fully operational fleet defense fighter entered service aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) aircraft carrier. The main task of the F-14A "Tomcat" (Kocur) is to defend the fleet, therefore it is equipped with a long-range radar and the AN / AWG-9 weapon control system, thanks to which it is able to detect a target and track it at a distance of 241 km. All data is transmitted to the RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) radar operator or simply to a navigator that operates the VDU (Video Display Unit) display that is part of the AWG-9 FCS system. During the flight, the F-14A can track up to 24 targets at once, the TWS (Track While Scan) device is responsible for this. TWS tracking targets analyzes which of them poses the greatest potential threat and fires Phoenix rockets in the order of destruction given by the computer. The F-14A can carry six AIM-54 Phoenix long-range missiles, two AIM-7 Sparrow missiles or two AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. In close-range maneuvering, the Tomcat pilot can use the M61A1 Vulcan cannon.

The F-14A has a Northrop TSC TV camera located under the bow of the aircraft, which can identify the target out of sight. The Litton AN / ALR-45 device and the Ma-gnavox AN / ALR-50 radar receiver are warned against radar irradiation. Between the engines there is a Tractor AN / ALE-29-39 radar and thermal apparent target projector and a Sanders AN / ALQ-100 radar jammer.

Kitty Hawk-class ships were the last conventionally propelled multi-role aircraft carriers. USS Contellation (CV64) and USS America (CV66) entered service in 1961. Initially, the tactical numbers of all units were preceded by the letters CVA, with the letter "A" representing the attack and offensive nature of the ships. The designation was changed to CV in 1973, which meant that aircraft carriers were multipurpose ships. There were 20 Northrop Grumman F-14 "Tomcat" fighters on board the USS America aircraft carrier, 36 F / A-18 "Hornet" fighters, 4 EA-6B "Prowler" electronic countermeasures, 4 E-2C early warning planes " Hawkeye ”and 8 Lockheed Martin S-3“ Viking ”anti-submarine aircraft. In addition, 4 Sikorsky SH-60F "Seahawk" and 2 Sikorsky HH-60H "Seahawk" helicopters were stationed on the carrier. Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carriers constituted a very strong combat team, comparable to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers of the Nimitz or Enterprise class. The USS America CV66 was stationed in San Diego until August 1996, when it was decommissioned. In its place was a new unit of the Nimitz type, the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis CVN 74 - the letter "N" stands for a nuclear-powered ship.