2005 NAS Oceana Airshow - F-14 Tomcat Demo (Saturday) 

It's glorious.👍

What was an F-14 doing at an AFB?

@@bobelayer "airshow at Andrews AFB"...maybe just read it again.

That'll never happrn, because, all remaining airframes that were retired became museum pieces, and had their engines removed. The only way to see one of these felines In the air now, is to go to Iran, but, they're not at all friendly with our country.

@@johnosbourn4312 iran

@@johnosbourn4312 Which is a shame because we have a lot more in common with Iran than not. Vicious religious fundamentalism, for one.

@@johnosbourn4312 they probably have quite a few of them mothballed in the bone yard just case if so it wouldn't take too much at all to make them airworthy but it would never happen. I'm sure the pilots that flew it are all retired now and you'd have to go through training new pilots... Etc. It would be more trouble than it's worth

@@MuscleDad420 vicious religious fundamentalism? Did you just throw 3 ridiculous words together? Last I checked we never buried someone to their waist and stone them till they are dead because they broke some religious law.

yes

Duderocks5539 no...what sucks is that they were sold to Iran.

It doesn't matter now. Their hull only has so many hours of life like all aircraft. There's a reason Iran doesn't use them much. With Iran, we're talking 30+ year old F-14A models. They can get no parts for them and have to fabricate them on their own to keep them flying. That puts reliability into question due to manufacturing tolerance variances, let alone alloy requisites for heat, pressure, etc. during flight. We're talking microns in precision tolerances here. So whatever Iran has left is a skeleton of what we had. They are using Russian avionics and power plants and weapons. The bird was due to retire after a valiant service by the US Navy. And the US government demanded wisely the scrapping of every one to keep parts from getting into enemy hands.

Nfarce have Iran's F14's ever flown? I thought our techs that delivered them and were offering support to Iran's airforce sabotaged the planes before high-tailing it out of there when the revolution started, essentially guaranteeing they'd never fly.

@@MrCool-qi7cy hey buddy ,with Iranian shah' ordered and their money's this project was built in our product line ( grumman ! ) for fighting with Soviets russia Migs ! but after the revolution of Iran everything gotta be changed !

Brian Phillips when i was 12 i got to see a whole squad of f14s with Desert, Jungle and other Paint schemes during Wings over Stockton in CA. Greatest Air Show in the world. I am so sad that i cant ever see anything close to it again. Especially sad that I will never see an F14 fly ever again.

Same here. I still remember watching them at the willow grove, pa air show when I was a kid.

Brian Phillips .....You can still see them at air shows...................in Iran

The A-6 with its turbojets was the loudest plane on the boat in the 80s

Would have love to have seen this in person! Loud for sure, but for me when the B1 Took off man that was the loudest I've ever heard was awesome!!

"Based on an old design...: has nothing to do with it. The F-15 and F-16 entered service in 1976 which is only 2 years after the F-14, and both are still in service. The US Navy had a smaller number of F-14 than any other combat aircraft and this made any production runs for spare parts more expensive because high volume equals lower cost per unit. They were not kept in reserve, but completely destroyed because of several attempts by Iran to steal parts to maintain their fleet of F-14's.

The Navy and American Government is greatly regretting not getting more.new D models or the suggested Super Tomcat. Russia is testing everyone again and China is building up it's long range arsenal. A long range interceptor is needed again. The F15, F22, F35, and F18 Rhino don't have the legs. The Amraam doesn't have the range of Aim 54 either.

@@TheUsmc0802 the F15 does in fact have longer legs/ The only real special thing about the tomcat was its AIM54 capability giving it the longest standoff range against bombers. IF the US ever got its hands on the European Meteor missile, it would essentially fill the standoff range, whilst also being capable as the AMRAAM against fighter sized targets

@Ultra CNC By that same logic one shouldn't compare the F16 and the Hornet? I think not. Ultimately the F14 competed on the export market for air forces against the F15 , just as the Hornet did against the F16. What made the tomcat superior in pure interception over the Eagle was really just the missile. The Aim54 giving it at the time unmatched standoff capability, but even then those were only really justified against bombers to protect the fleet. Today There would be no need for an Aim54. To large, heavy, overly expensive and impractical. And even if there is such a need for a missile with even longer ranges than the Aim120 family ( there are Aim120 replacement being built) there exists the MBDA Meteor missile, which does have superior range to the Aim120D on the market, whilst being practical as a main use missile against any aerial targets ( fighters included). The naval F35C already has longer combat radius on internal fuel alone than the tomcat did with EFT's. So the excuse that the Navy has a capability gap without the F14, because does not have an aircraft to match or exceed tomcats range, or integrate a missile for interception no longer has any validity. The Tomcat is simply a redundant and impractical aircraft to have kept around even if you did want to invest in modernizing the same old airframe. IN comparison the F15 has aged much better. iT has its age but by not having a variable sweep wing design, and not requiring a 2 man crew already made it more economical then the tomcat to maintain and operate.

And? No one is saying the f14 wasn't right for the navy during the cold War especially given the time frame it was introduced? Stop trying to change the goal post. Not really much of an argument in favor of the f14 if really all it had going for it is "muh carrier operations". And as for present day navy doesn't really require an Pure interceptor.. Now that generation 5 is out, generation 6 is already on the drawing boards. I seriously doubt that generation 6 will be as streamlined and inexpensive as gen 4 let alone being cheaper then gen 5. There really is no capability gap for having retired the f14 when they did. The war in the middle east has been operating in air supremacy environment and lugging laser or GPS based bombs, meaning aerial refueling was much more easily deployable. Now that there is need a possible need for deterring a neer peer adversary like china, there still isn't would be a justifiable need for a return of a tomcat. F35C mixed in with advanced super hornet fits needs well. You need to understand the navy doesn't have the budget or space on carriers to have aircraft variety like the us air force can afford. Air power projection from the sea is just 1 aspect of the navies role. The f35 may be expensive to maintain relative to typical gen 4, but its price has drastically dropped as is production has increased in the last years. Even looking on the export market, most of nato, and other allies of the west want the f35 over anything else on the market.It is well rounded multirole design with some of the most sophisticated technology offered. Its the most future proof design especially if your going to operate it for the length the legs aircraft have stuck around. It is a stealth aircraft and therefore has a immensely smaller radar cross section that the tomcat ( or any aircraft of that generation tbh), meaning it won't be detected by radars unless at relatively close ranges, giving it a first detection and first kill advantage. It has an aesa radar and much more modern avionics, and is the epitome of network centric air warfare. With the aim120d, or especially with meteor missile it in practical terms also serve as a superior interceptor to f14.

The reason is maintenance and age of the airframes. Although I wish they did keep it, so damn beautiful!

Costs. One set of tools, parts, pilots, mechanics, etc.

my Baby was brought down by the most heinous of foes.... Cheney's red pen!

Good interceptors against bombers, but not as a dogfighter against modern fighters. The only real advantage the F-14 had was its AIM -54 Phoenix missile which had an incredible standoff range, but it was only good for large lumbering bombers and maybe a cruise missile. The US did not keep any F-14 around and in fact destroyed them instead of parking them in the aircraft boneyard because in the past Iran had attempted many times to steal/smuggle spare parts to maintain their fleet of F-14's they inherited from the days when the Shah was in power.

Maintenance costs killed it, however the for real D models were new builds and should've been kept. The converted B models were definitely getting long in the tooth.

Thanks for watching. Captain and shift commander LaBonte 3 division force recon. L 7 square D usmc.

Very nice fantastic

Or in Iran..

Flying!

At first, I was gonna say BS but, thinking about it, it actually sounds legit. So, you're saying the $1.5B was the money the Shah sent to buy Tomcats?

Xavier Horace Iran was the only country we exported, that was the shah of Iran. They still fly a couple.

I notice that too. This is obviously a VF-32 Swordsmen Tomcat and not an Grim Reapers one.