the 'Tomcat' ever used to its full potential?
The F-14 Tomcat was correctly dubbed the MiG killer in it's time, it was big and could host six large long range supersonic AIM-54 missiles that would kill any nimble MiG before it could even get close to any US position, built to defend aircraft carriers in the high seas the F-14 armed with the AIM-54 could hit airborne targets dead on 100 miles away, targets including fighter jets, supersonic bombers and even cruise missiles!
However this system was expensive, and apart from selling 79 F-14's and 285 AIM-54 Phoenix missiles to the Shah's Iran, following the revolution of 1979 it was rumored throughout the west that these missile systems were disabled by the Americans before they left, neither way it was an extremely expensive loss for the United States military.
The US Navy however throughout the 1980's made no use of the deadly system, the AIM-54 wasn't mass produced at all, as it had been during the late 1970's, instead during both incidents above the Gulf of Sidra against Libyan MiG's and Sukhoi's Navy Tomcats used short range AIM-7's and AIM-9's, which meant close quarter dogfights which misses the whole point in the missiles role in the long range defense for naval aircraft carriers.
However during the 1980's the Iranians did manage to press at least 55 of their F-14's into the newly founded Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, only around six AIM-54's had been disabled by the Americans, the Iranians put the Phoenix missile into increased use throughout the first five years of the war against Iraq, in one instance in 1982 downing two Iraqi MiG-23's with just one AIM-54!
However the Iranian Tomcats had a problem with their faulty TF30 engines, although this didn't stop the IRIAF F-14's scoring over 100 air to air victories against Saddam's air force.
The US Navy in 2006 had the Tomcat fleet destroyed, the deadly AIM-54 system never got it's chance to prove its worth in the west.
Related Reading:
Persian Cats
Dez Iddon: Just in case
Book: Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat
Labels: f-14 tomcat, iran, iriaf, us navy
posted by Paul Iddon @ 5:55 PM
2 Comments:
At November 6, 2009 6:34 PM ,
Anonymous said...
There were many successful experiences in regard to use of F-14 in Iran-Iraq war. Some Mig 25 and Mirage F-1 were downed by Tomcats. Iraq tended to disconnect Iran oil export. So, many Mirage F-1 had been bought to attack Iranian oil tanks. Main goal of Iraq air force was Khark Island located 225 KM of eastern south of Iran. The biggest oil wharf of Iran was in Khark. The wharf has T shape. A lot of Mig 25(Foxbats) and Mirage F-1 were downed By F-14 and F-4. Iran could provide safety in strategic strait of Hormoz for exporting oil during the war.
At November 6, 2009 9:30 PM ,
Paul Iddon said...
there were some 300 aerial engagements over Khark Island throughout the war, including Iraqi use of Tu-22 bombers
but during the earlier days of the war during the two year Iraqi offensive the F-14's literally cut down the onslaught of MiG-23's which never stood a chance.
the Mirage F-1's armed with R-550 Magic missiles was the only thing to hinder the Tomcat, some 3 Tomcats were lost during the war as opposed to 20+ Mirages late in the war!
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