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Author Topic: The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?  (Read 2453 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
« on: January 03, 2025, 01:09:26 pm »
The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
The famous 2-seater F-14 Tomcat has found a permanent resting place in the hearts and minds of US Navy personnel and countless other aviation enthusiasts

Kris Osborn · January 1, 2025

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization


The famous 2-seater F-14 Tomcat has found a permanent resting place in the hearts and minds of US Navy personnel and countless other aviation enthusiasts. The airframe became known for its advanced speed and dogfighting ability.

Not only did the aircraft achieve Top Gun fame, but it is also known for going through an evolutionary process, resulting in a highly capable jet.

A lesser-known ability of the F-14 is its incredible Mach 2.3 speed, which places it alongside the F-22 as the fastest US fighter jet ever.

https://warriormaven.com/sea/the-retired-f-14-tomcat-had-f-22-like-air-speed-retired-too-early
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Offline rangerrebew

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Re: The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2025, 01:11:13 pm »
This causes me to question the wisdom of retiring the A-10 and B-1, not that the military gives a damn what I think.
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The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline PeteS in CA

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Re: The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2025, 02:55:54 pm »
1. The F-15C's top speed is Mach 2.45, faster than the F-14D.

2. The F-15C's thrust-to-weight ratio is 1.07. The F-14D's was .88.

3. The F-15C's wing loading is 73.1 lbs./sq. ft.. The F-14D's was 96 lbs./sq. ft..

4. The F-15C's service ceiling is 65000 feet. The F-14D's was 53000.

The F-22's performance is similar to that of the F-15, though .2 Mach less fast and a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.08. A big difference between the F-22 and the F-14/15 is that the latters' cruising speed is under 500 Kn, while the F-22 can supercruise at Mach 1.76.

Unlike the F-15C and F-22, The F-14D could not carry and control the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which involves more than just attaching the missile to a pylon. The AIM-54, which the F-14D could carry and control, was very outdated and designed for bombers that are not agile, like fighters.

The F-14 had reached the limit of its upgradeability, the F-15 is pushing that limit, and the F-22 incorporates modern technologies while probably being at the mid-range of its upgradeability. The F-14 was retired at about the right time, at its attainable peak but before some newer and more capable opponent bested it in combat.

Then there's radar cross-section:



The F-14 would have been in the same range as an F-15 or F-4. The F-22 would be some 6 orders of magnitude less easy to detect and lock onto than an F-14.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2025, 03:04:49 pm by PeteS in CA »
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If, as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/robert-f-kennedy-jr-said-the-covid-19-vaccine-is-the-deadliest-vaccine-ever-made-thats-not-true/ , https://gospelnewsnetwork.org/2021/11/23/covid-shots-are-the-deadliest-vaccines-in-medical-history/ , The Vaccine is deadly, where in the US have Pfizer and Moderna hidden the millions of bodies of those who died of "vaccine injury"?

Millions now living should have died. Anti-Covid-Vaxxer ghouls hardest hit.

Offline DefiantMassRINO

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Re: The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2025, 04:07:50 pm »
Did someone at the Pentagon watch 'Top Gun: Maverick' again?
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Offline Timber Rattler

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Re: The F-14 Tomcat Had F-22-Like Air Speed – Retired Too Early?
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2025, 04:50:46 pm »
Yeah, the F-14 had pretty much run its course, being originally designed to intercept and take down Soviet long-ranged naval bombers carrying cruise missiles.  It was huge, a gas guzzler, and a hangar queen.  The Navy's problem was, and is, that the service never really developed a proper replacement, going instead for the slower and shorter-ranged F-18.
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