F-14 Tomcat: History, Performance & Discussion

And I dont care whether a loadout was in service or otherwise as long as the SRAAM and Yak-141 exist in game.

If a aircraft was capable at some point in it’s existence of deploying a weapon it should have that weapon and / or system available for it in game.

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Gaijin is very picky when it comes to this.

I don’t think that we need 120s on the F-14A, but if we want an F-14A that’s fully kitted out with new modules but that doesn’t have the new engines, that’d be pretty sick.
I believe the proper pictures are already in the discussion somewhere

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And remember that the 1980s to early 1990s F-14A still has the analog style RWR.
As far as I know, the F-14A used for AMRAAM testing differs from the F-14A “late” seen in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Not really… Gaijin just adds or doesnt add whatever they want to fit their (flawed) view of reality

The German F-4F (Late) still doesnt have its 9L’s despite being a relatively mid airframe with a low missile count AND it being the only Fox 2 it used in service IRL.

The US F-5’s never used CM’s or RWR’s in US service (iirc there are even accounts of US pilots buying civilian RWR’s and sticking them in their jets just to have said capability)

The YaK-141, which id argue shouldnt even be in-game seeing as it never had a radar, HMD, IRST, or any weapons, got them all because it “wouldve” had them “had it gone into service” (ie, its russian so the rules dont apply, or at the very least can be stretched to their absolute limits)

The Kronshdadt was laid down (fitting gaijins rules for implementation of naval vessels) BUT its final configuration was supposed to use 6 german 38cm guns, NOT 9 hypervelocity soviet dream cannons (because the russians werent actually able to build the stupid things and scrapped that idea for something they could theoretically get). Gaijin gave them the russian fever dream guns cuz theyre better.

AIM-54C has a reduced smoke motor IRL, but doesnt in-game despite the bug report that was approved for it pre-dating all reduced smoke motor missiles now in-game, and they STILL refuse to add it.

There are tons of examples of gaijin breaking their own rules, and at this point, id just say dont expect gaijin to actually stick to anything they say. They lie as naturally as they breathe.

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To add on to this;

They refused to add the GPU-5/A 30mm gunpod to the F-15A because the following image is of an TF-15A[F-15B] (The airframe that became the Strike Eagle prototype)
F-15 GPU-5A

Even though neither the Brochure or video makes a mention of a specific variant and there is no change to the mounting brackets (MAU-12/A) between the Eagle and Strike Eagle.

And that the A-4E can’t get the GPU-2/A (M197 20mm w/ ~300 Rounds), because the airframe seen for a few frames in the promotional video can’t be proven to be an A-4E, not an A-4F (even though during the timeframe the specific unit operated both simultaneously, and there is little actual difference between them).

There are also a number of outstanding reports that they are sitting on, like;

  • Adding the GPU-5/A to the F-16A-10 (can be seen in the files, minimal work would need to be done, could potentially be included on the A-4, F-4E and F-20)
  • GAU-12 pod for the AV-8A
  • Adding outer wing station (4x) Sidewinder capacity to the A-4E.
  • Adding the AIM-9D to the A-4E.
  • 5" Zuni rockets for the F-100 and F-105
  • Adding the ACM mode for the F-8’s radar
  • AGM-65F / -G for the A-7E and A-10A respectively

I’m current teasing out exactly which airframes should have access to the various sizes of Snakeye & AIR High Drag kits, and working on the addition of the M117R (750lb bomb with H-D kit, this is important since it is the optimal loading for the MER in terms of Tons of HE per station), and confirming that their release limits (either 500 or 700 kts (~1.05 Mach at SL), depending on the release configuration and size of the kit in question) are accurate.

Also I have a lead on Correcting the RE factor of a number of explosive types in game, though it would basically be a slight reduction across the board that impacts most Western A2G bombs, rockets and missiles. (may also be extended to others if Comp. B-2 and -B-4 are similar enough)

Also the Paveway series (I , II & ?III?) may be being adjusted with a delay before it starts to guide depending on the variant. and an associated reduction to the Pave Spike (and Pave Tack / A-6E’s illuminator) maximum range (though in exchange may receive ground stabilization)

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Kind of a pipedream of mine is to see Gaijin eventually add an option of the GAU-12 pod for the AV-8A and AV-8C (AV-8C is iffy, but it was technically still an AV-8A but with some minor improvements, and still had the same wiring [I am also in favor of the AV-8C getting the ALE-37 pod]), but that’s for another topic lol

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The F-14 radar is glitchy af since a couple of weeks back and AIM-54 hit rates have gone down drastically compared to before the latest micro patch, Does anyone else experience the same? Posting a screen showing that I fly the F-14 a lot so it’s not just nonsensical ramblings.
Something has drastically changed.

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Glitchy as in TWS target cue jumps between targets and severs the original connection, essentially making Phoenix INS missile? Yeah, that really didn’t go away with fix they did a long time ago. I don’t really understand server infrastructure but sometimes Missile all of a sudden behave poorly, maybe they decreased the resources for missiles serverside… IDK

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The TWS glitch is worse than ever. They supposedly “fixed” it at least 2-3 times since the F-14 released, last time was for the Alpha Strike update or around that time but now it feels like they broke it even more with a micro patch.

Sometimes I will lock a non maneuvering target above me at high altitude so without interference from the ground or other planes and the lock will suddenly freak out and jump around.

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Yeah not touching the F-14 for awhile until they fix it, I’ve seen the Phoenixes do some wierd stuff like taking random hard turns to the left or right instantly after launch the last days.
While the tws was still abit glitchy a couple a weeks ago it was not nearly as severe as it is currently and the phoenixes were working beautifully.

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I just lost a potentional kill, when I fired a Phoenix on an enemy F-14, but he later fired his Phoenixes and my TWS track jumped and locked his Phoenix, after few seconds it relocked the F-14 BUT my TWS track was severd and now my AIM-54 Phoenix was flying into the ground with INS navigation, no longer updating the position of enemy F-14… Why isn’t community rioting over this? Do they all not play F-14 or do they not use AIM-54? Don’t they realize how this missile works?

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I just played now again and was able to reproduce the situation… but instead I hardlocked the F-14, cuz he was spamming same like the last guy and my missile had perfect INS updates until 16 km when it went ACTIVE.

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This video where it is said the F-14A can reach 1510kph on the deck.

Does anyone know of a condition where you could reach that speed?

I’ve tried on a few maps but I always cap at 1470-1473

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iirc, most american planes flight envelopes are limited in official documentation for the sake of the the aircrafts lifespan. Hence why you have pilot accounts of blowing past M2.3 in the tomcat at alt in level flight while in-game it struggles to even hit Mach 2.0. Its possible this is a case of that.

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I figure that too, honestly I’ve given up on that by now, the Tomcat is known to be restricted for lifespan but the documents understating the plane is just way too convenient.

What I’m annoyed about is how that video is from War Thunder itself, and I want to see if they can even back up their claim.

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I didnt even notice it was from WT lol, my bad.

It would definitly be interesting to get proper documentation regarding true aircraft limits, seeing as by all pilot accounts, many US aircrafts are probably not performing anywhere near what they could.

I think this is most obvious in the top speed department, where “Mach 2+” aircrafts like the F-4’s and F-14 are borderline incapable of hitting Mach 2.0, while russian planes like the 21 bis blows by mach 2 stock. This is likely partially due to how documentation for each nation reports top speeds, though in the case of the 21bis, its also due to gaijin allowing emergency thrust levels on the 21bis with no overheating damaging the engines despite there being clear documentation of the issue and limits of emergency thrust AND war thunder literally modeling engines overheating for years before the 21bis was added…

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They removed this years ago, unless I’m thinking of something else. The 21bis had way more thrust before

The fact it was allowed in the first place with no downsides, and that gaijin even defended their decision is more the problem imo.

Kind of like how they “accidentally” had the MiG-23 massively overperforming for what, 3+ years now? Except in the 21 bis’ case it was a lot worse since they definitely knew it was overperforming, and they made a conscious decision to leave it as such for a while.

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I mean when they removed it the also buffed the f4e at the same time. I don’t think that was intentional as a buff. They probably took a chart without knowing it was the special AB mode on.

F-5s have the same age in but they still ignore them and shut down reports, idk how many reports there were on the mig23, and only the m/ml got nerfed? not the mld?

They could’ve keybinded the special AB mode instead honestly, like 3 minute hard limit of it or extented limit with risk of engine damage