Tomcat

(Part I…) 🤔

Sad truth. Ships had to have birds overhead in the 20th century. The battles of Taranto, Pearl Harbor, Coral Sea and Midway saw to it that going straight at another frigate or ship of the line and letting loose with cannon or turret fire were over.

There would be a few more ship to ship battles, but carriers were the new ships of the line, throwing manned birds at each other to do all the fighting. 

Whatever. Time goes on. Adapt, innovate, and solve problems.

If you have to have birds overhead to survive, have the best to protect you from enemy birds. Wildcats led to Hellcats and Corsairs, then to Sabres, and eventually onto Phantoms and Crusaders. Fighters that would defend the fleet rather than strike at land and sea targets.

Fighters fighting Fighters. Good. Let them do all that so ships can fight ships. Though the more powerful and expensive fighters, the more specialized and fewer there were.

Vietnam saw manly Phantoms protecting carriers against MiGs while bombers went and did their thing uselessly like almost everything in that stupid war. They were good enough. But not good enough for what was next.

Soviet “Backfire” bombers armed with “Kitchen” missiles (love NATO code names) Had long flight range and even then once fired, the missiles could hit a carrier 300 miles away.

The spectre of a dozen or so Backfires showering carrier groups with those missiles could spell doom for those Carriers. Sure, they had picket lines of cruisers and destroyers with big SM2-ER Standard missiles with an 80 mile range sailing far ahead of the carrier, but no, our ships would be screwed. Phantoms weren’t fast enough and the short range missiles could never hit a bomber that far away that fast.

The best was needed. Industry want to work. They had to be big, with a huge radar in the nose. Needed amazing supersonic afterburners to soar at Backfire bombers. Range. Range. Range. The standard Sparrow missiles didn’t have it. So they designed a new missile. The Phoenix was huge. The new bird could carry six of them. It was the only reason plane that could carry any.

The Tomcat was a beast. Too big to even operate off the oldest Midway Class Carriers in service.

Vastly improved avionics. Variable wing design, wide to take off and have maneuverability if they had to go air to air against other fighters, and they’d move into a swept back for blazing speed to close distance with bombers.

From the ground up across the board, an amazing aircraft had to be designed, not just to shoot down the “archers before they could fire their arrows” but still have air superiority over more maneuverable fighters.

Basically they just need to the best of absolutely everything. They were.

Air Force pilots called them “turkeys” because of how they looked parked. But they were F-14 Tomcats. Yeah, they were in the movie Top Gun. Good movie but the Tomcat was far more than just a movie star.

With its speed, range, afterburners and those monstrous Phoenix missiles, good luck being a Soviet bomber anywhere near a carrier. Early warning aircraft finds you and whispers to a Tomcat on routine patrol and you could be locked onto before crossing the coastline.

Leave it to Air Force guys flying F-15 Eagles to take to a rivalry with Navy F-14 Tomcat pilots. Which one would win? The airmen always bragged the Eagles won in dogfighting and air superiority.

LOL what the Eagle was designed to do. Talk about missing the point. Sure, go up against the Tomcat. What? What do you mean you want to start inside 40 miles? 😂

No, son. You’re getting blown out of the sky from 110 miles away before you even get close. But even at your game you’re going to get a run for your money.

Competition between the services is nothing new;  but it always struck a bit hollow in this rivalry because the missions of the planes were so different.

The movie didn’t help. Made it look like the Tomcat was a pure air superiority fighter; not a fleet defender.

Easily the most magnificent fighter America’s ever made. Oh sure there’s the new ones, stealth planes with more expensive smaller radars, etc. but nothing like the Tomcat that will hit you 500 miles away and full afterburn.

The magnificence of that plane makes the tragedy of its demise even greater. After the Cold War ends, The Navy doesn’t have as much to worry about from long range bombers The Russians can’t afford to operate, And after 9/11 everything became focused on land attack and no one had anything that could hold a candle to the multi-role Hornets that backed the Tomcat up.

So they got rid of them. The capability of hitting targets out that far. Too expensive. And they were too stupid to at least keep just a few of them around to maintain the capability.

Not unlike getting rid of all of the anti-ship weapons on our naval vessels – a stupid mistake. Sure we didn’t have any credible naval threat for 20 years, but now Russia and China are actually building threats to our fleets and we sure could use some anti-ship missiles and some freaking Tomcats on patrol when our multibillion dollar carriers get within a potential enemy’s ballistic missile range.

Leahy- and Belknap- class cruisers carried the SM2-ER to hit air targets 80 mi away and they ditched them for the Ticonderoga class that had missiles only half the range, but more advanced Aegis defense systems. Same issue.

More “advanced”, but with not nearly the range. Good job guys. Don’t give them both barrels at the same time and hedge your bets In case your new-fangled toys don’t do the trick.

Next-generation stealth fighters? Sure. Spend 20 years designing a plane that can’t be seen… until they spend 5 years making a better radar.

Tomcat could independently track and hit a different target with every missile.  worried about missing? Lol fire twice. That way you don’t have to worry and put your trust in letting Kitchens get close.

The only other country to operate Tomcats Ironically was Iran; The legacy of an arms deal done before the Shah was overthrown. So the Navy destroyed every last retired Tomcat just to keep spare parts out of the enemy’s hands.

It’s not like they were going to lose any in battle against the Iraqi Air Force in the 80s. There are legends of Iranian Tomcat pilots that American Air Force guys try to shush.

The Tomcat was one of a kind, built for a very specific mission, though dynamic enough to adapt to any aerial threat. Towards the end they even made ground attack modifications, but that was a waste of its talent.

There’s just something about facing unique threats. Unique circumstances. Times where an unconventional solution is needed to save the day.



Innovation. Creativity. Hard work. Adaptation. Solution.

Unique challenges require unique solutions. 

There are just lessons in everything, aren’t there? 🤔

And damn they were beautiful…

It sucks not to just be able to man the cannons and do straight up battle with your opponent. But being a Knight of the Sky… that was a pretty good consolation prize…

RIP, Tomcats. Y’all are truly missed.