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The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft.The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the General Dynamics-Grumman F-111B project.
The first was for a low cost lightweight complement for the General Dynamics–Grumman F-111B which could replace the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II for air superiority, escort, and ground attack missions in the early 1960s. This role was dropped in favor of the VFX aircraft, which emerged as the F-14 Tomcat.
In the US Air Force the naming convention for fighter aircraft is a prefix "F-", followed by a number, ground attack aircraft are prefixed with “A-” and bombers with “B-”. Fighter aircraft from the second world war onwards are sorted into generations , from 1 to 5, based on technological level.
The Pratt & Whitney F401 (company designation JTF22 [1]) was an afterburning turbofan engine developed by Pratt & Whitney in tandem with the company's F100.The F401 was intended to power the Grumman F-14 Tomcat and Rockwell XFV-12, but the engine was canceled due to costs and development issues.
On 15 December 1975, VF-114 transitioned to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat along with its sister squadron VF-213. This transition took a little more than a year and in October 1977 the squadron deployed with its F-14s for the first time, once again to the Western Pacific on the USS Kitty Hawk with CVW-11 and VF-213.
In the late 1960s the Navy began development of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter, which offered dramatically improved performance over their F-4 Phantoms.The Tomcat's origins begin in the Fleet Air Defense (FAD) concept that was based on aircraft carrying very long-range missiles and radars, allowing them to attack enemy aircraft at ranges on the order of 100 miles (160 km).
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F-14A Tomcats of VF-1 in flight in 1970s. The Tomcat made its combat debut during Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of American citizens from Saigon, in April 1975.F-14As from Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1) and VF-2, operating from USS Enterprise, flew combat air patrols over South Vietnam to provide fighter cover for the evacuation route.