The saga of the development of the F-14 Tomcat out of the ashes of the Joint Service F-111B program is quite a tale
The story of how the F-14 Tomcat emerged from the failed Joint Service F-111B program is remarkable. Although many criticized Secretary of Defense McNamara for selecting the F-111 in the name of standardization, he was primarily focused on platforms and cost-cutting with his accountant-like mindset. The deeper reason he decided to merge the Navy’s Fleet Defense Interceptor program with the Air Force’s next-generation strike aircraft program was rooted in the specifics of the Navy’s original requirements.
While McNamara is rightfully criticized and condemned for his Vietnam War policy choices, his move to merge these programs stemmed directly from the Navy’s own vision for the future of Fleet Air Defense. As missile technology advanced quickly and internal guns were seen as outdated, the Navy’s late-1950s concept for its next interceptor focused on putting maximum capability into the missile itself, with the aircraft serving mainly as a carrier for these “wonder weapon” missiles—a so‑called “Missileer.” This led to the development of the Douglas F6D Missileer, which featured straight wings and was intended to loiter over the fleet like an airborne surface-to-air missile battery.
The Eisenhower Administration canceled the Missileer concept in 1960, but aspects of it lived on. The Navy had become so committed to missile technology that its new F4H-1 Phantom was built without an internal gun, depending instead on a primary air-to-air loadout of up to four AIM-7 radar-guided Sparrows and four infrared AIM-9 Sidewinders. Guns were relegated to external pods, which unfortunately occupied a hardpoint—often the critical centerline tank station on the F-4. This missile-heavy configuration was ideal for engaging high-flying Soviet bombers, where such weapons were essential to counter the threat. But against agile, gun-equipped MiGs, the missiles failed to perform as expected.
F-111B, BuNo 151974, being launched from USS Coral Sea in July 1968. It was the only F-111B to perform carrier operational trials.
Vietnam would reveal that missiles were not yet performing as hoped: the Sparrow missile managed a kill rate of only about 10 percent, while the simpler infrared-guided Sidewinder achieved roughly 25 percent. As a result, aircraft originally built to shield the fleet from Soviet bombers ended up dogfighting supposedly “obsolete,” but agile, gun-equipped Soviet-designed fighters. Meanwhile, the F6D Missileer concept was absorbed into the Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) initiative, which later became the F-111. Observing the Navy’s Missileer idea, McNamara concluded that adapting a version of TFX for the Navy would allow the combined program to save money across all the services.
This idea was effectively validated by the way the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all adopted the F-4 Phantom. A key factor in this success was that the Phantom had been designed from the beginning for carrier use, which meant the Air Force could adapt it for land-based operations with only minor modifications. The TFX program, on the other hand, started as a land-based project, and the winning contractor, General Dynamics, enlisted Grumman to help convert the F-111A into the carrier-capable F-111B.
The F-111B program ran into serious trouble as the aircraft remained chronically overweight and struggled with carrier suitability, even though it was flown with limited success from ships like the USS Coral Sea. Its biggest problem was that it felt like the wrong aircraft for the era—a Missileer-type platform intended to replace the F-4 Phantom, just as the Phantom itself was experiencing combat difficulties in Vietnam. The program’s fate was sealed when Vice Admiral Tom Connolly told Congress that “not all the thrust in Christendom could make a fighter out of that airplane,” effectively ending his own career to protect the future of Naval Aviation. The fact that he and Admiral Thomas Moorer shared the name Tom likely influenced the choice to call the new fighter Tom’s Cat—the Tomcat.
As the program continued to run into numerous problems, Grumman and senior Navy leadership chose to salvage the usable elements and move in a new direction. Retaining the F-111B’s swing-wing design, engines, radar, and missile systems, they launched a new effort that reimagined the Missileer concept into something far more flexible: a Missileer that could also excel in dogfights. This new aircraft would blend high maneuverability and an internal gun with long-range radar-guided missiles, backed up by medium-range radar-guided Sparrows and short-range heat-seeking Sidewinders. From the remnants of the F-111B, the powerful Tomcat would emerge—though that is a story in itself.
Check out William Cobb’s Facebook page, Pensacola Aerospace Museum, for further aviation photos and stories.
Photo by U.S. Navy
