F-14 Tomcat

F-14 Tomcat
General Info
Role	Interceptor
Hangar level	11
Difficulty	★★★☆☆
Durability	▰▰▰▱▱▱
Speed	▰▰▱▱▱▱
Agility	▰▰▱▱▱▱
Traits	cruising altitude swing wing
Base Stats
Hitpoints	160
Top speed	1198 km/h
Acceleration	40 m/s²
Turn rate	35 °/s
Ideal turning speed	666 km/h
Afterburner fuel	15 s

A 70's era naval Interceptor, with high speed and long-range weapons. With its wings swept forward, it becomes a pretty good dogfighter.

— In-game description

The F-14 Tomcat is an interceptor, air superiority and multirole fighter first introduced into service in September 1974. It is equipped with long range, radar-guided, fire-and-forget missiles. It has strong afterburners which provide power to climb. It is also equipped with short range, heat-seeking missiles, and an internal cannon, should the need arise for a dog fight. The F-14 Tomcat excels in a look-down/shoot-down support role.

Loadout

The F-14 Tomcat is equipped with short range ×4 heat-seeking missile, long range ×4 radar missile, and a short range, slow to spin-up assault cannon. The F-14 Tomcat is also equipped with ×5 flares.

Type	Max Damage (DPS)	Ideal Range (km)	Reticle Range (km)	Spin-up Time (s)	Spread	Overheat Time (s)	Ammo	Armor Piercing
Assault cannon	205	0.4	0.9	1.3	low	6.8	∞	none

Guidance	Range Type	Range (km)	Quantity	Damage	Speed (km/h)	Turn Rate (°/s)	Lock Angle (°)	Lock Time (s)
Heat-seeking missile	Short range	2.8	4	75	3240	15	10	1.3
Radar missile	Long range	12.0	4	120	6120	15	5	1.8

Special Ability

The F-14 Tomcat has a special ability called Multi-Lock. When equipped and triggered, it will allow (if missiles are still present) the ability of the Radar Guided missiles to lock onto and fire 4 separate missiles at 4 separate opponents at once. There is a cool down period between uses. Re-arming Radar Guided missiles is necessary to use the special ability again.

Veteran tips

The F-14 Tomcat is limited in its battle uses. The afterburners are powerful. However, it has a slower top speed. The special swing wing design trait can be challenging to master. It is suggested to fold the wings inward to take advantage of the swing wing's low drag, accelerate with the afterburners. Pitch the aircraft upwards to its special higher cruising altitude, where its engines becomes more efficient and provide more speed with less fuel consumption. From here, level the aircraft and extend the wings forward to slow the aircraft. Then, employ a look-down/shoot-down firing tactic with its long range, radar guided missiles. The Multi-Lock special ability is best utilized at high altitudes. If the aircraft is still equipped with its full, four, long range, radar guided missiles a pilot can lock onto and fire four separate missiles at four separate opponents at once. The opponents must be within the long range lock reticle when the special ability button is pressed. Not very often is there a shooting scenario where four opponents can fit within that reticle. If only two or three opponents are in the reticle, the special will only fire two or three missiles. There is a cool down period between uses. Re-arming radar guided missiles is necessary to use the special ability again. It is suggested to limit the amount of dog fighting. The short range, heat-seeking missiles are slow to lock. The internal cannon can only fire short ranges, is slow to spin-up, and has a wider spread. Maneuverability suffers at slower speeds. The F-14 Tomcat can be deadly in the hands of the most disciplined pilots that utilize the aircraft in a support role.

Trivia

In-game, the F-14 Tomcat is equipped with what appears to be four AIM-54 Phoenix long range, air-to-air missiles. In real life, the F-14 Tomcat was the only in-service aircraft to fire the AIM-54 Phoenix. The F-14 Tomcat was capable of carrying six total AIM-54 Phoenix missiles. Its proposed AIM-54 weapons system, working with the AWG-9 radar, the weapons package had the ability to multiple track up to 24 targets and multiple launch up to AIM-54 Phoenix missiles nearly simultaneously, regardless of weather conditions or heavy enemy electronic countermeasures. Due to high unit cost and high weight, equipping the AIM-54 Phoenix was limited. Outside of testing, American had fired the AIM-54 Phoenix only three times in anger. Of these three times, one resulted in a miss, a pair were fired at a Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat and both suffered from motor failure. The F-14 Tomcat and AIM-54 Phoenix missile were purchased by Iran. The Iranian Air Force claims 78 victories with the use of the AIM-54 Phoenix missile. Iran claims an incident happened on January 7, 1981, where a single AIM-54 Phoenix fired at a four aircraft formation of MiG-23 Floggers, downed three and damaged the fourth.

Paints

The F-14 Tomcat has 7 different paints available, including the default.

Name	Unlock requirement	Rarity	Image
Factory Gray	Default	Basic
Boneyard	65 gold	Uncommon
Jolly Roger	65 gold	Uncommon
Frostbite Camo	65 gold	Uncommon
Woodland Camo	65 gold	Uncommon
Slay-1	99 gold	Rare
Wraith	149 gold	Epic