The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is probably one of the most legendary American supersonic, variable-sweep wing, carrier-capable jet fighters to have ever left a mark on the history of military aviation. It was developed for the VFX Naval Fighter Experimental program with the United States Navy after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project. The F-14 would be the first of the American Teen Series fighters, all of which were designed with air combat experience against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War in mind.
First flown on 21 December 1970, it made its first deployment in 1974 with the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), replacing the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The Tomcat became the primary U.S. Navy’s maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor, and tactical aerial reconnaissance platform into the 2000s. In the 1990s, the addition of the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night LANTIRN pod system gave the Tomcat true precision ground-attack capability.
The F-14s were also used as land-based interceptors by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. Iran has claimed to have shot down a minimum of 160 Iraqi aircraft using its F-14s, a count that historian Tom Cooper could only confirm at 55. The IRIAF lost 16 Tomcats during the conflict; seven of these losses were attributed to accidents.
The F-14 was retired by the U.S. Navy on September 22, 2006, and replaced by the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet. Many F-14s have been preserved and are displayed in the United States. The incredible thing is that the F-14 still flies under the colors of the Iranian Air Force, where the aircraft had been exported in 1976 under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty.
The F-14 Tomcat has also made appearances in some popular media works, video games, and movies. It appeared first in the arcade version of U.N. Squadron as Mickey Simon’s fighter and then in Carrier Air Wing as Rick Ford’s favored aircraft. The Tomcat is famous for its velocity and high specialization in air-to-air fighting. It has minimal armaments for air-to-ground attacks.
Within video games, the F-14 Tomcat is the fighter jet used in the Sega game series After Burner. Beginning from an aircraft carrier, players take off with a mission to destroy enemy jets over 18 stages with a machine gun and heat-seeking missiles. This game was produced to be put into a standard upright cabinet and a rotating cockpit version, where the latter is equipped with a seatbelt to hold the player when the cockpit moves.
The film “Top Gun: Maverick” also showed the F-14 Tomcat. In a climactic scene, Maverick and Rooster hijack an F-14 Tomcat from a ruined enemy airbase and engage Sukhoi Su-57 Felons of the enemy state in a dogfight. Even after running out of weapons and flares, Maverick and Rooster were able to survive due to the timely intervention of Hangman.
Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is the protagonist of both “Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” He is a US naval aviator who flew fantastically and had somewhat careless tendencies. There had never been easy times in Maverick’s career. Among these were the dark moments of the death of his Radar Intercept Officer, LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, where he perished during one of the training flights. Even after being cleared of responsibility for the accident, the death of Goose haunted Maverick, as he took his friend’s loss to heart and was consumed by guilt.
Over 30 years later, Maverick is still flying, having effectively dodged promotions past captain. He is called back to TOPGUN many years later to train a new team of the best pilots for a special mission—to destroy an illegal uranium enrichment facility hidden in an unnamed country. The mission was to fly through treacherous landscapes and engage in dogfights against advanced enemy fighters, including the Su-57.
Speculation is rife online that the enemy country in “Top Gun: Maverick” is Iran because it fields state-of-the-art stealth fighters and Cold War-era interceptors, including F-14s. The inventory of IRIAF includes Russian, French, British, and American-origin aircraft—making it a conceivable adversary in the context of this film.
The legacy of the F-14 Tomcat lives on through its historic significance and its lingering presence in popular culture. As a legendary aircraft, it has built quite a reputation on its storied history and the capabilities that make it one of the most remarkable fighter jets in military aviation.