What shall Become of all those F-14 Phoenix Missles?

[wolf8564]

I was just remounting my GBU-10 and putting my phoenixes in a box I wondered what the Government will do with the tomcat Specific Missiles Since they cannot be carried by any other aircraft?

[snake]

Think they would have scrapped them, as like you say, they are Tomcat specific.

Would hope that they would have saved some inert examples for use as display on museum F-14's.

[wolf8564]

Mighty exspensive Scrapping They will probably do the same as they do with the F-14.
Storage!

[big_mike]

All F-14s, save those in the museums, have been or are scheduled to be shredded. There will not be a mothballing of F-14s or any in storage to prevent parts from falling into Iranian hands. It's a crime in my eyes since the Tomcat is my favorite plane bar none.

[rudedog]

they are all gone there was an articale not to long ago about the death of the last one sucks for us navy people they are an awsome aircraft. long live the twin tail cat best fighter ever built!!!

[pizzaguy]

This will make you sick. Tomorrow's Pepsi can.

Is there's plans to keep one of them flying? Like the Heritage foundation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W7pph9KhYY

[wolf8564]

Oh I cannot watch that that is a down right crime.I think it would be easier and Better just to Nuke Iran! Problem solved!

[snake]

Scrapping the Tomcat was tough to see, but what else are you supposed to do with them?

Only so many can go to museums, so the rest really need to be scrapped. Not unusual at all, for a weapons system that has been retired. Heck, they can't even save the mighty Enterprise from being broken up.

Would be nice to have a couple of flying examples that could do the airshow circuit, but would have to be private/ corporate funded. And would need the blessing of the US gov't to release one to a private party. Can't see that happening for quite a long time.

[Beeavision]

Whatever happens I certainly hope they don't get scrap those landing gears. I could definitely use those.

[Beeavision]

Scrapping the Tomcat was tough to see, but what else are you supposed to do with them?

Make furniture out of them perhaps. Or better yet the cockpit alone would make one hell of a gaming chair.

[A-10LOADER]

All I want is a tailhook for my collection, that's all.


Steve

[snake]

Hey, you never know. I have seen SR-71 parts for sale, so " Joe- average citizen" may be able to get some bits and pieces in the future.

[USCGMK2]

That is sad, but interesting to see how taxpayer money gets scrapped. The only one i've ever seen in person is here on Oahu at the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford island.

[tmanthegreat]

Very sad to see the death knell of the F-14... It was and still is one of my favorite jets. It was always the epitome of coolness in the aviation world, I guess thanks to the film, "Top Gun". The F-18 just doesn't quite cut it, even with that fighters Blue Angels and a few cinnematic connections.

I'm very glad I got to see Tomcats fly on multiple occasions, and get up close to active service planes back when they were still front-line fighters. My best F-14 experience was visiting NAS Fallon and touring the flightline back in the late 1990s when I was in the Boy Scouts. We got unrestricted walk-arounds of F-14s and there was even one that was torn apart for maintenance in one of the hangers that we got to look at. The 20mm cannon assembly was awesome

I've seen a couple in museums since the aircraft's retirement (theres one at the Castle Air & Space Museum in Atwater, CA, for those of you in Central California) but a gutted museum example just isn't the same as the real thing was...

[Beeavision]

Yeah, even the retirement of the all the space shuttles was a hard thing to witness. Often times in the news I'm noticing more helicopters and drones in the sky in action rather then fighter jets. And with the way technology is heading most wars will probably end up being carried out remotely when dealing with scenarios involving air to ground combat. If we didn't need to fly our troops into battle we would probably see a reduction in black hawks too. When you Google up images of some of the current aircraft carriers now a days more times then not all there is on the very top decks are a handful of F-18s. Even the number of carriers in service since the Cold War era have radically fallen. If I'm not mistaken even the newer carriers of today are getting much smaller with less personnel on board then compared to the Nimitz fleets of yesterday. Sometimes I even wonder if the F-35 will be the last manned fighter jet we ever see make it into combat. Then again with all its mechanical problems and production costs even the F-35 may end up being a no go in future missions.

[big_mike]

The Tomcat is without question my favorite aircraft. I grew up with GI Joe ARAH and the Skystriker was my favorite toy by far, I think I owned 3 of them. When I learned about the real plane on which the toy was based I was bitten by the aviation bug. Much of my recreational reading middle school were books about military aircraft of all varieties and carriers. At one point in the early 90s I had shelves full of F-14s, aircraft carriers, and books.

I love carriers of all generations but am particularly fond of the Nimitz class. And I am relieved to say the super carrier will survive. The Gerald R. Ford class will be near identical to the Nimitz in dimensions and slightly smaller in crew compliment. The air wing will include F-35s in addition to the current compliment of planes and choppers. But the overall number of aircraft in the airwing has decreased significantly since the 1980s and even the 90s. Of course there are smaller carriers employed by the Marines which employ VTOLs and helos.

[Apache26]

It's a damned shame they won't mothball the F-14. That's the modern military for you. They scrap a system and deem the capability unnecessary until they discover in the next war that they really needed that item in the first place and don't have a replacement. None of our current fighters can match the long range engagement performance of the AN/AWG-9 rader with the Phoenix missile. The F-18 doesn't fill the role of the F-14 at all, and it's design isn't much younger. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the Navy dumped the F-14. All I can think is that it's politics. The Navy and Air Force let perfectly good planes fall apart in service so they can piss and moan about not having the newest, $1 Billion (per plane) stealth jet they want and have spent $35 Billion and counting in developing.

It's like the M-551 Sheridan. The Army dumped it in the early 1990's and dropped light armor support from it's recon regiments and the 82nd ABN. Granted, it had a spotty service life, but there were replacement designs. The Army is now back to figuring out how it returns a light armor/AT capacity to the 82nd. We assume that we can somehow dictate how wars are fought and are always surprised that the nature of war remains fairly constant.

[tmanthegreat]

It's a damned shame they won't mothball the F-14. That's the modern military for you. They scrap a system and deem the capability unnecessary until they discover in the next war that they really needed that item in the first place and don't have a replacement.

The F-14s were an older design - dating from the early 1970s - and they were very maintenance intensive. High maintenance needs = high cost to maintain. F-18s are a newer design (late '70s early '80s) and were designed from the get-go to be easier to maintain. They were also cheaper to build (and maintain) on a 1-1 basis compared to the F-14. The F-18 is just as much of a capable dogfighter - US F-18s have more air-to-air kills than US F-14s. Further, the F-18 was designed for a dual-role purpose as a fighter-bomber. The F-14 was initially designed as a fleet-defense interceptor (a role for which it still is superior to the F-18) and while it was later converted to a successful ground-attack aircraft, that was not the role it was principally designed for. It was not as good of a multi-role aircraft. The F-18 basically offers the Navy a multi-role aircraft in a more affordable and easy-to-maintain package. When you're trying to save on costs, that's what you want. From a budget and practicallity standpoint, the decision to retire the F-14s makes sense.

I agree, it would be great to have mothballed some of the F-14s, however, mothballing takes time and money. As the Navy had just as capable of a fighter with the regular F-18 and F-18 Superhornet variant (and eventual plans for the F-35) there wasn't a need to keep what amounted to an obslete aircraft around. Add to that the Iranian F-14 issue with potential for parts to fall into the wrong hands and the scrapping decision - while very painful - makes sense.

[rudedog]

yes it makes sense but it still sucks to see the twin tail cat end the way she did no self respecting navy person could stand to watch !!!

[snake]

As Tman has said, the F-14 was retired due to it's ever increasing maintenance costs. And would just get more and more expensive every year. At a certain point, it just isn't cost effective.

The F-14 was designed as a fleet defence fighter, basically to protect the carrier from enemy aircraft. It was designed around the AWG-9 radar, and Phoenix missiles, for this specific mission. No other aircraft, including the Super Hornet can match this capability. But the Tomcat was also designed at the height of the Cold War, and guess that the USN doesn't think the threat to its carriers from enemy aircraft is as severe as it was.

I was fortunate enough to see the Tomcat demo probably at least half a dozen times, including its last year-2006. Shame to see the last flight of this great fighter, who was retired before its time.

[Beeavision]

Speaking of retired aircraft I just read in the news last night regarding the tensions over in North Korea. Apparently the US has been sending over B-2 reconnaissance missions in the area. Aside from the B-2 the US is also flying in B-52's as well. Now that is one aircraft that always seems to triumph the test of time. Built in the 50's this bomber despite its numbers diminishing over the years has been in service for more then half a century. I wonder how many more years the US plans on using them.

[NWarty]

I leave this with you guys.

http://youtu.be/jGGfZMHEK8A

I consider myself lucky to be able to see them while they were still active. My sons think the Tomcat is the coolest thing on the planet.