Sigh. Her sporty older sister is in the background too. I still think we made a huge mistake not going with the F-14D new production. Range, range, range; payload, payload, payload.

 

H/T B.

 

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Not sure I'd call an Iranian Tomcat a "beautiful girl" but I suppose its the aircraft, not the air force.

 

Cue Tony.

Maybe we can buy some air defense fighters from Iran.

 

Refurbishment:

• Replace AWG-9 with enlarged APG81 and 360 degree coverage
   
  
• Replace crappy engines with F110-GE-132 (32,500lb thrust vs TF30 @ 21,000lb thrust)
   
  
• F-14D or better FLIR/IRST and give me 360 degree coverage
   
  
• Integrate the 360 degree fun with F-35 shared software
   
  
• Helmet mounted display again steal from F-35
   
  
• Maybe pull off a frontal RCS  
  
• Maybe help RCS with Silent Eagle style conformal tanks, also netting more fuel and some internal weapons carriage?
  

Loadout napkin checked for weight (anti-awacs barely makes it, carrier will groan!). See http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/387-1689.aspx for some of the interest (funny I was reading that this morning before the F-14 blog post)

 

Anti-AWACs loadout:

2 x SM-6, 2 x AIM-120D, 2 x AIM-9X

 

Fleet air defense loadout:

4 x ESSM, 2 x AIM-120D, 2 x AIM-9x

 

Drone chewing:

12 x AIM-120C/D, 2 x AIM-9X (figure dual ejector rack in each Phoenix location)

 

Air to Ground:

Yah, you have fun with dat den