F-14 Tomcat Fighter Is a ‘Top Gun’ Legend and Iran’s Best Jet

• For the second week in a row, “High Gun: Maverick” is the number-one field workplace draw.
• The “High Gun” sequence made the US Navy’s workhorse fighter, the F-14 Tomcat, a legend.
• Regardless of the affiliation with the US Navy, the F-14 has a protracted historical past with Iran’s navy.

The “High Gun” franchise is at the moment on the middle of our widespread tradition. For the second week in a row, “High Gun: Maverick” (2022) is the number-one field workplace draw.

The success of the sequel has mirrored consideration upon the unique — for my cash, a stunning masterpiece; the top-grossing movie of 1986 — which has been topping the

Netflix

rankings for weeks.

The male-centric unique “High Gun” options one among movie’s biggest rivalries, between Maverick and Ice Man, in addition to what is probably going movie’s biggest bromance, between Maverick and Goose.

But the movie’s recurring scene-stealer is probably not Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, or Anthony Edwards — however relatively the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, the US Navy’s main fighter jet throughout the later days of the Chilly Struggle.

A formidable foe of the Russian MiG

The F-14 was designed with the information gained throughout fight towards MiG fighters throughout the Vietnam Struggle. The primary of the “Teen Collection” fighters, the F-14 debuted in 1970 and by 1974 was deployed aboard the USS Enterprise, to switch the F-4 Phantom II.

In changing the Phantom, the F-14 turned the Navy’s go-to workhorse, able to conducting a large spectrum of mission profiles: air superiority; fleet protection; interceptor; aerial reconnaissance; and later, floor assault.

Versatile and sturdy, the F-14 Tomcat served for over three many years. But, the Tomcat usually took a backseat to its overlapping successors — the F/A-18 Hornet and the US Air Power counterpart, the F-15 Eagle. Resultantly, the F-14’s operational historical past isn’t fairly as spectacular as its capabilities or service length would recommend.

Via the Eighties, the F-14 earned the overwhelming majority of its fight expertise towards Iraq, solely, not with American operators.

Within the Nineteen Seventies, earlier than the Iranian Revolution and when the Shah nonetheless dominated Iran, Iran and the USA have been allies. The US, hoping to bolster Iran’s navy, exported F-14s to the Shah — the only real overseas buyer of the warplane. And Iran, which spent a lot of the Eighties engaged within the Iran-Iraq Struggle, relied closely on the Tomcat.

In line with researcher Tom Cooper, Iranian F-14s scored 50 air-to-air victories throughout the first six months of the battle. Besting Iraqi MiG-21s, MiG 23s, and Su-20s; just one F-14 was misplaced throughout these first six months, proving that the designers, who had got down to develop a MiG-killer, had certainly succeeded.

Iran’s, and the F-14’s, success is especially notable in that Iranian aircrews lacked correct help from AWACS, AEW, or floor management — and in addition as a result of the Iraqis have been receiving help and gear from three world powers: the Soviet Union, France, and the suddenly-no-longer-allied-with-Iran United States.

Estimates recommend that Iran solely misplaced a dozen or so F-14s throughout the eight-year struggle. (Iraq’s claims to have shot down over 70 Tomcats seem hyperbolic.)

One Iranian pilot, Jalil Zandi, exemplifies the success of the Iranian Air Power. He’s credited with capturing down 11 Iraqi plane. So, oddly, Zandi, relatively than some red-blooded American volleyball participant, is the F-14’s highest-scoring pilot ever.

Right this moment, Iran is the world’s solely operator of the F-14; Iran nonetheless operates about two-dozen Tomcats. Studies point out that the F-14 was utilized in fight not too long ago, as a bomber escort for sorties over Syria. The US retired the airframe in 2006, changing it fully with the successive F/A-18.

The US, credibly paranoid about industrial espionage, shredded a lot of the retired F-14s for worry that Iran would purchase parts from the preserved Tomcats. Solely 11 intact F-14’s survived the purge, remaining in storage, at Davis-Monthan AFB, within the “Boneyard.”

Luckily, the F-14 lives on in perpetuity, on movie, in High Gun, the place it’s preserved within the Library of Congress.

Harrison Kass is a senior protection editor at 19FortyFive. An lawyer, pilot, guitarist, and minor professional hockey participant, he joined the US Air Power as a pilot trainee however was medically discharged. Harrison has levels from Lake Forest School, the College of Oregon, and New York College. He lives in Oregon and often listens to Dokken.