Was the F-14 Tomcat a success?

It’s primary mission, carrier battlegroup defense against Soviet bombers firing stand off missiles against the carrier battle group never came to pass in reality. They did fly escorts to strikes in Libya, Lebanon, against the Iranian Navy and intercepts in those couple Libyan incidents. And they did fly as escorts in Desert Storm, but it was the Eagle that ruled the skies there and was the top killer. It’s later years saw it as a bomb dropper in the Balkans and Afghanistan as they were being phased out, primarily for economics. The re engined B & D models addressed the shortcomings of the A, but it was getting older and more costly to keep on the line. And let’s face it, if the Russian or Chinese long range bomber threat were to re emerge today, the Super Hornet does not have the stand off range capability that the Tomcat had. The AMRAAM is supposed to work at max range of a bit under 60 nm head on, while the Phoenix had nearly double that range. Although the latest AIM-120D is the latest extended range version with a classified max range, so, maybe they are getting close to regaining that lost capability.

I think it was very successful. Iran used them well, both in combat and as a deterrent.

The USN did all kinds of things with them both during and following DS1.

Phil_H

 

 

tempestjohnny

Well the Tomcat did shoot down a couple of Libyan Su-22's. Oh and those 2 Zeros on December 7th..:) 

 

 

 

You forgot the four(?) Mig 28's, all shot down with the same missile..

 

tempestjohnny

Well the Tomcat did shoot down a couple of Libyan Su-22's. Oh and those 2 Zeros on December 7th..:) 

You forgot the four(?) Mig 28's, all shot down with the same missile..

It's like a great sports team or player who wasn't seriously challenged by the competition.It doesnt make them any less successful because they were not challenged.You can only beat the ones you play.