Combat history of F-14 Tomcat (US and Iran’s!) - Animated

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This video goes through all the biggest moments of the F-14's active service history. Starting with the end of the Vietnam war then covering the operations over Lebanon, Libya, Iraq and finally Afghanistan. But that's not all! Iran's utilization of the F-14 is also covered, with the big accent on the Iraq-Iran war.
How many Tomcats were lost? How many kills did they achieve? It's all in this video.

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[FElectricEagle]

The main character of Top Gun was portrayed by Tom Cruise, but the star of the movie was the F-14 Tomcat.

[christianpethukov]

Learned a lot in this video. The Iranian F-14 history is far more interesting than I ever knew, and certainly more action-packed than the longer US history with the type.

[mek]

My dad was an Iranian F-14 pilot, he downed 4 jets himself, 2 with AIM-54. He told me that the real number is around 90 - 100 jets and lost some 7 F-14s. I heard a bunch of crazy war stories, real TOP GUN shit.

[AR-rfvo]

Persian gulf from 5000 years ago for ever.

[steeltalon]

It is critical to remember iran air force was purged and lacked good logistics
Meaning the f14 should have being even more effective

[jankowal]

Nobody has attempted to describe the F-14 Tomcat so extensively and succinctly. Very nice movie and good job. I would love to watch a similar movie about the F-111 Aardvark, which is a very interesting construction.

[lightspeedvictory]

Didn’t realize that the F-14 participated in the evacuation of Saigon! You learn something new everyday.
I think I remember reading somewhere that after Iraq started using MIG-25’s in strike missions, Iran modified their Tomcat’s to drop long range glide bombs for stand-off strikes

[adm]

Say what you want but the ability of Iran to maintain and operate this aircraft for 44 years without OEM spare parts is amazing. They must have learned how to indigenously manufacture critical aircraft systems and aero engine parts.

[rocktechinc]

You forgot two US Navy F14 engagement. On December 6, 1941 two F14As of VF84 Jolly Rogers flying off the USS Nimitz were engaged by two Japanese Zeros northwest of Hawaii and one Tomcat scored a gun kill while the second scored a kill with an AIM-9. This engagement was highlighted in the 1980 Documentary The Final Countdown. You also forgot that in May, 1986 two F14As off the USS Enterprise were engaged by 6 MIG28s. One Tomcat was shot down and 4 MIG28s were shot down. 1 by the lead Tomcat and 3 by the alert 5 Tomcat as highlighted in the Naval documentary Top Gun. The final engineer that was brushed over was in 2018 when two F18E super Hornet pilots were shot down by enemy SAMs and evaded capture by stealing and enemy F14A and on their way back to USS Theodore Roosevelt they were engaged by enemy SU57 Felons and the US Navy crew were able to successfully down two Fifth Generation fighters and recover the stricken Tomcat with a barricade landing. As highlighted in the naval documentary Top Gun Maverick. 😎😎😎🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[jamesdowell]

"Permission to buzz the tower, god willing?" "Negative the pattern's full" - Somewhere over Iran, 1980

[rolandjaycutter]

I like to call Iranian F-14s 'Cannibal Cats', do to how their kept airworthy.

[kevinw]

In 1974, the Shah purchased a total of 80 Tomcats, along with 700+ AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and enough replacement parts (including engines) to last the IIAF up to ten years after delivery. The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the Shah threw a wrench into the gears, and it consequently led many to believe that the F-14s of the former Imperial Iranian Air Force would fall into disuse, mostly due to the US government’s decision to cut ties with Iran in all areas, including logistics and technical/mechanical support for the fighters the previous Iranian government had only recently bought. Canadian officials saw a chance to procure the mighty Tomcat after all, only for a fraction of the original price.

Canadian foreign ministry officials were instructed to convince the new interim Iranian government that a lack of parts for the relatively new Tomcats would keep them grounded and unusable. It would be too costly to reverse-engineer the large jet, and without any external support, upgrading them would be a completely hopeless venture. After successfully convincing the Iranians of this, they set to the task of chipping away at the price the Iranians were expected to offer for their fleet of Tomcats (including parts and the arsenal of Phoenixes themselves). Once again, the Canadian officials were thoroughly successful and managed to haggle down the price of the aircraft to below the original unit cost. The purchase seemed to be almost certain. Then disaster struck. Word soon broke out that Canadian diplomats were responsible for assisting US embassy personnel in escaping the country during the 1979 Hostage Crisis (i.e. the legendary “Canadian Caper”, subject of the movie Argo). The Iranian government immediately cut off talks with Canada and nixed the nearly-inked agreement. Thus ended any chance of the RCAF/Canadian Forces Air Command ever flying the mighty Tomcat.

[brafianblackfyre]

Iran utilised the F 14 Tomcat's excellently, unfortunately because of politics they are almost never credited with their success.

[jaws]

According to the osprey publishing book "Iranian F-14 units in combat" by Tom Cooper the F-14 programme was saved by the Shah of Iran as he ordered the Iranian state bank to loan the money Grumman the money they neede to keep the programme alive due to massive delays and cost over runs....plus the Shah wanted the F-14 for his Air Force at all costs.

[Cypinate]

The F-14 is the muscle car of the sky. My fav fighter of all

[hldarte]

In the early F14 days the plane was hard to work on. As maintenance crews were just learning the systems, a few flaws in design, and newer test equipment. I was one of the first Marines to work on the F14 training in Naval squadron (VF124) at Miramar and personal watched 2 planes lose engines. I loved the plane but expensive maintenance and costs caused the Corps to drop the program with it lasting just over a year. And yes we had a picture of a F14 escorting a bear bomber in the hanger in 1974. Thank you for this video, I learned a lot. The Phoenix missile did have a range much farther than 60-70 miles (the range was classified when I was in).

[onthusitsebaikakedi]

Lest we forget the iconic f14tomcat.hats off to Iranian aces, between 1980 and 1988.

[coldfire]

The Iranians have also produced a clone of the Phoenix missile called the Fakour-90.

[GenPatton]

thank you for posting, the way the Iranians used their F-14's doesnt get enough respect
(Edit. There are some good books out there on F-14's being used by Iran during the war with Iraq)

[michaelhowell]

The 25 percent if F14s were lost in accidents stastic really surprised me.