The F-14 Tomcat
During the Cold War, Soviet advancements in long-range patrol and bomber aircraft created a need for a fleet defense fighter capable of engaging high-altitude bombers beyond visual range. Grumman’s iconic F-14 Tomcat fulfilled this requirement. The F-14 was equipped with long-range AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles that allowed the aircraft to engage multiple hostile targets from over 90 miles away.
For medium-range combat circumstances, Sparrow missiles were carried on the aircraft; Sidewinders and a 20mm cannon provided capabilities for dogfighting. The Tomcat’s variable-sweep wings were what gave the F-14 a combat maneuvering ability that could not have been achieved using a “standard” fixed-planform wing.
It was not only Soviet fighters that faced a serious threat from the Tomcat’s outstanding fighter capabilities but also Russian strategic bombers and cruise missiles designated to attack the US Navy’s carrier strike groups (CSGs) in the event the Cold War turned hot.
Soviets tried to fish an F-14 Tomcat
‘So serious a threat, that the Soviets tried to go fishing for a VF-32 F-14 that fell off the USS John F. Kennedy on Sep. 14, 1976 – after the plane’s control systems went haywire and the pilot/RIO had to eject,’ says Aaron Stormcastle, an aviation expert, on Quora.
‘See, at the time, the John F. Kennedy was off Scapa Flow (in Scotland’s northern islands)… which wasn’t too far from the Soviet backyard, and this gave them plausible cover to attempt a recovery of the aircraft by posing as a fishing fleet conducting normal fishing operations.
‘Why go through all the bother?
‘In 1976, the F-14 was still a brand new plane – complete with its AIM-54 Phoenix missiles designed to kill Russian-made aircraft… and the AIM-54 alone was worth whatever effort it took to illicitly acquire (since securing the entire aircraft without anyone noticing would have been highly improbable).’
Soviets fail to fish an F-14 Tomcat
‘However, by the end of their operations in the area, the Soviet interlopers were unsuccessful – and they went back to Russian waters empty handed.’
Stormcastle continues;
‘Once all the Ruskie hubbub calmed down, the US Navy sent in their ace-in-the-hole: Admiral Rickover’s science toy, the NR-1… which was a nuclear research submarine suited to this kind of mission.
‘Being nuclear powered, the NR-1 could crawl along the bottom for as long as the onboard provisions (food and water, mostly) held out – which allowed the crew ample time to zero in on the F-14 and inspect what, if anything, the Soviets had accomplished.
‘The Tomcat wreckage was located soon enough, and the NR-1 crew observed that it had indeed been thoroughly harassed by Soviet efforts – with the fuselage roughed up quite a bit and entangled in fishing nets that had no business being there (the area of Scapa Flow doesn’t have any commercial fish stocks at the depth where Kennedy’s F-14 was sitting).
‘At first, NR-1 couldn’t account for the AIM-54… but the missile was eventually spotted after working a grid pattern going outwards from the F-14.’
Stormcastle concludes;
‘With the Tomcat and its missile accounted for, and the Russians having long given up on illicitly recovering either of them, the US Navy put their own operation into effect – hiring a local salvage outfit to lift the plane from its watery grave so that the Soviets wouldn’t be tempted to have another go at it.’
Top image: Gunnie Moberg
Photo by U.S. Navy
