Posted on 02/25/2015 9:52:46 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Several years since it was eventually retired from the U.S. Navy, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat remains one of the most loved planes by aviation enthusiasts. Any article about this iconic fighter plane, still operating with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, its story, capabilities, records and surrounding anecdotes, always become a much debated and commented post on The Aviationist. For this reason, we will continue writing about this legendary plane and its replacement: the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
After the Tomcat retirement, the Rhino (as the F/A-18E/F is nicknamed by its aircrews) has not only quickly become the backbone of every Carrier Air Wing (CVW), but it has also replaced some of the oldest Legacy Hornets on the American flattops. Having fulfilled such a difficult task, the Super Hornet has demonstrated to be one of the best multirole jets available today. But could an advanced version of the F-14 have been even better?
LCDR Joe “Smokin” Ruzicka, who was the Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) who flew the last F-14 Demonstration before the Tomcat’s retirement in 2006, last year released an interesting interview to Foxtrot Alpha’s Tyler Rogoway. Among all the other things, Ruzicka explained that, while the Super Hornet is a great plane, it seems like its strength mainly comes from technology. “In the Tomcat, I think you had to be a better aviator because the technology just wasn’t there. It was up to the aircrew to maximize its performance (or minimize it if you sucked).”
That said, one might wonder whether integrating the same technology in the F-14 would have been possible.
By 1987, Grumman realized that the potential for growth had not yet been reached by the F-14 airframe, and they proposed to the U.S. Navy four advanced versions of the F-14, as told by Tim Callaway in Issue 13 “Grumman F-14 Tomcat” of Aviation Classics magazine.
The F-14D Quickstrike was the first proposal: featuring an enhanced version of the APG-71 radar, this advanced Tomcat version would have carried stand off weapons such as the Harpoon, HARM and SLAM (Standoff Land Attack Missile) missiles.
Requiring only new software and minor modifications to existing F-14Ds, the Quickstrike would have been a cost-effective attack platform but it didn’t meet the Advanced Tactical Fighter specification and the U.S. Navy chose the shorter ranged F/A-18E/F.
The second proposal was the ST21, the Super Tomcat for the 21st Century. The latter would have been a structural upgrade to the existing F-14Ds, that would have introduced a new wing glove design and single piece windscreen, while sensors positioned in front of the under fuselage weapons rails would have supplemented the chin pods. Moreover the ST21 would have also received a new engine the F110-GE-129 of 13,154kg of thrust, which would have provided a supercruise speed of Mach 1.3 featuring also thrust vectoring nozzles for greater maneuverability. These new engines would have supplied to the ST21 a tremendous acceleration alongside with a greatly increased range of the aircraft.
Another modification to the standard F-14D would have been the AST21, the Attack Super Tomcat for the 21st Century.
This advanced Tomcat would have been fitted with additional extra bomb pylons under the engine nacelles, a nuclear weapons capability, a modified radar with a Forward Air Controller (FAC) mode and an Integrated Defensive Avionics Package (IDAP) to improve survivability in the air to ground environment. The last proposal, as Callaway explains, was the ASF-14 Advanced Strike Fighter.
The ASF-14 would have been a totally new aircraft with the F-14 shape and it would have taken advantages of the new materials and new technologies developed for the Advanced Tactical Fighter and Advanced Tactical Attack Aircraft programs.
None of these proposals has been built and we’ll never know if an advanced Tomcat would have been better than the actual Super Hornet, but for sure these two fighters are two different aircraft as explained by Ruzicka, who told to Rogoway that the better way to understand the differences between the F-14 and the F/A-18E/F is using the analogy of a muscle car to a mini-van, “with the Tomcat being the former and the Super Hornet being the latter. The muscle car doesn’t have much to it in the way of fancy technology, just some raw speed and the coolness of a Steve McQueen movie, but it gets the job done. The mini-van on the other hand is a very nice car, complete with DVR’s for the kids, Air Conditioning, power windows, and lots of places to put your sippy cup. It’s a great car—-but it’s still a mini-van.”
Image credit: U.S. Navy
The Super Tomcat should be a clean sheet design, not an upgrade.
“None of these proposals has been built and we’ll never know if an advanced Tomcat would have been better than the actual Super Hornet,”
What a freaking laugh. The regular Tomcat outclasses the Super Hornet any day of the week.
I loved the F-14, but as a child of the 80’s I may be biased by nostalgia!
The F-14 Tomcat is the sexiest fighter plane ever.
Now that was just straight up FUNNY.
Would it have been cheaper to maintain then the E/F? If not then it is a waste of time. The world changed and needs are different.
“The Super Tomcat should be a clean sheet design, not an upgrade.”
Buwahahaa! They tried that. A-12.
If they try to clean sheet one again don’t expect it to cost any less than the F-22 or F-35. ‘Clean sheet’ is the same as saying ‘damn expensive’.
The A-12 was supposed to be a replacement for the A-6 Intruder.
I just had an up close look at both the F-14 and the F-18 at the Yankee air museum in Chino CA this last Sunday. What really struck me is how large the F-18 is.
The Tomcat was definitely an engineering marvel, but it looks kind of clunky compared to today’s modern aircraft.
I was in Virginia when their Air National Guard gave up their F-106s. The paper interviewed some of the pilots and they all were sorry to see it go.
I remember one described the F-106 as the “Cadillac of Fighters”. I wonder if they just get used to one and hate to see it go.
Hmmmm...if not outright competition for that title, the F-16 fighting Falcon is a very, very close second.
F-14 - Sophia Vergara
F-16 - Selena Gomez
You'd think someone who has got to ride in the back of either would prefer the amenities.
Yea, and the Hog is just plain ugly, in a beautiful sort of way. So what? Both airframes are damn good at their job. It’s sad that the Tomcat never got to see its full potential.
Big beautiful sexy hunk of screaming jet.
I have been hanging around airplanes long enough to get a sense of what they do by watching them fly. The F-18 never has floated by boat let alone the E/F.
Now the F-14D I saw at the Reno Air Races in 91' with the GE Engines, did things I never saw a F-14 do before. And it pains me to say that being the Pratt and Whitney Engine zealot I am :-).
Just my 2 cents, I'd taken any and all the follow-on re-do's of the F-14, and If Cheney didn't kill the A-12, I'd have loved to see a version that wasn't all composite, maybe standard airframe with composite skins like the F-117a and see if it had the payload of the A-6 and Stealth.
Then the Navy would have had something....
Since a regular Tomcat F-14D is already FAR superior to a “Super” Hornet,,,yeah, id say so. Even an original Hornet outruns, and out turns it.
Super Hornet isn’t that hot of a plane. Its main advantages is in bring back ability for expensive precision ordinance, and ease of maintenance. But in the air, its not the Equal of an F-14D. In range and ordinance on target it isn’t as good.
Every advance in Naval Air bombing has gone backwards since the 80s. The A6 was dumped for the 14D, then the 14D to the latest Hornet, and now the Hornet for the F35.
Every single time, range and payload has significantly dropped.
The carrier air wing of today has the lowest capability post WWII in terms of striking distance and payload. Its dramatically lower than even the early 90s.
I’ve always heard the F-4 Phantom II referred to as the Rhino but never Hornet. Interesting.
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.