The Top Gun icon, the F-14 Tomcat, was decommissioned from the US Navy in 2008, but its stories will be told for posterity. One such story dates back 34 years to Operation Desert Storm, in which Iraq shot down a Tomcat. Interestingly, this was the only F-14 that the US Navy lost to hostile fire.
The F-14 Tomcat was a twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable aircraft developed under the US Navy’s Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program. Since its inception, the aircraft has been special because it was developed based on the air combat experience accrued by the US military during the Vietnam War, which ended in a crushing defeat for Washington.
The carrier-capable supersonic Tomcat fighter jet entered the service in 1975 and was regarded as the first operational fourth-generation fighter jet. It successfully combined features that are now standard in modern fighter aircraft, including top speed, remarkable maneuverability, and cutting-edge avionics and weaponry.
The aircraft served the US Navy in three key capacities: as a maritime air superiority fighter, a tactical aerial reconnaissance platform, and a defense interceptor. While the aircraft participated in several conflicts globally, it is best known for its stunning performance against Iraqi MiG fighter jets during the Iran-Iraq war and its iconic appearance in the Tom Cruise-starer film, Top Gun.
However, this story concerns the US Navy’s deployment of Tomcat to Iraq during ‘Operational Desert Storm,’ which was launched by a huge military coalition led by the United States against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain’s invasion of Kuwait and his refusal to withdraw forces despite appeals by the international community.
The Only US Navy Tomcat That Went Down
Just days after the aerial campaign against Iraqi forces began, an F-14B attached to VF-103 and flown by pilot Lieutenant Devon Jones and radar interceptor officer (RIO) Lieutenant Lawrence Slade was shot down by an Iraqi air defense system on January 21, 1991. According to some reports, the missile that took down the aircraft was the Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missile.
On the fateful day, the F-14B in question was on an escort mission when pilot Jones saw a surface-to-air missile approaching through the clouds. Jones immediately increased the power and conducted an immediate evasive maneuver but could not escape the attack. The missile exploded near the aircraft’s tail, sending it into an uncontrollable spin.
The pilot and the RIO had to eject. This is when the two crewmen saw each other last before disappearing into the sky. Jones and Slade landed in different locations.
The pilot, Jones, managed to communicate with his comrades after a scary descent. In a coordinated mission, the A-10 Warthog and H-53 belonging to the United States rescued the pilot. They flew him out of the Iraqi desert and took him to Saudi Arabia, where he was hospitalized.
On the other hand, the RIO Slade was captured by Iraqi forces and taken to a prison in Baghdad. There, Lt. Slade was tortured along with other airmen that Iraq had managed to take as prisoners of war.
He was released only in March of that year after enduring several months of regular thrashing that put his life in jeopardy. As per reports, Lt. Slade suffered severe back injuries and damage to his organs due to the torture meted out to him.
The incident is remembered as the only time when a US Navy F-14 Tomcat was lost in combat to enemy fire. But how did the Tomcat get there?
When Tomcats Were Deployed For Op Desert Storm
Led by Saddam Hussein, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Within two days of launching the offensive, Iraqi forces had run over the entire country. The main reason behind this invasion was Saddam’s ambitions to seize large reserves of Kuwaiti oil, expand his influence in the region, and cancel the huge amount of debt that his country owed to Kuwait.
In response, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 660, calling for Iraq to immediately withdraw from Kuwait, and Resolution 661, which imposed comprehensive international sanctions on Iraq. However, Saddam Hussein was unrelenting and refused to withdraw his troops from Kuwait.
At the time, Saudi Arabia was concerned that Iraq might invade it next. So, on August 7, US President George H. W. Bush launched ‘Operation Desert Shield’ and stitched together a coalition of 35 nations to defend Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait.
Over the next few months, a massive military build-up was carried out, and men and equipment were transported to Saudi Arabia in preparation for war against Iraq.
This was when the F-14 Tomcats entered the scene. As soon as Operation Desert Shield came into force, Tomcats were deployed to conduct combat air patrols and defend coalition forces and US carrier battle groups that were headed to Saudi Arabia. According to some public accounts, each of these carriers had four F-14 squadrons.
Eventually, Operation Desert Shield transitioned to Operation Desert Storm on 17 January 1991, when the coalition forces kicked off their air campaign against the Iraqi troops. Commanders of the US Navy used the sleek, swing-wing Tomcats to test Saddam Hussein’s air defenses and protect the continuous influx of coalition forces to the Persian Gulf region.
The Tomcat was armed with two AIM-54C Phoenix and two AIM-7F Sparrow missiles mounted under the fuselage, two AIM-7Fs and two AIM-9s under the wing, and external fuel tanks on the hardpoints under the nacelle in the conventional F-14 load-out. More significantly, the aircraft was outfitted with Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pods (TARPS), which particularly proved valuable as surveillance platforms and helped to locate Iraq’s mobile Scud missiles.
The Tomcat did not get a fair share of combat, unlike other fighter jets like the F-15 Eagle. Instead, the F-14s provided escort protection for attack aircraft that were tasked with bombing the Iraqi positions and annihilating the Iraqi Air Force.
This was rather surprising since the F-14 aircraft in service with the Iranian Air Force had shown a stellar combat performance against Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. The Iranian Tomcat reportedly scored 160 aerial victories during that war. In contrast, only one Tomcat was shot down by an Iraqi MiG-21, and a surface-to-air missile downed another.
During Operation Desert Storm, the participation of the US Navy’s F-14 in combat against the Iraqi Air Force was limited because the aircraft lacked the technology to conclusively identify hostile aircraft at a long range.
Moreover, the US Navy aviation wing had not integrated with the joint air combat command and operated independently. Unlike other combat jets, like the F-15, the Tomcats had to depend on clearance from the US E-3 Sentry to be able to fire because its sensors could not identify threats independently.
According to an official account: “Navy’s premier fighter never scored an air-to-air victory during Operation DESERT STORM: the U.S. Air Force refused to assign air-to-air missions to the Navy; the Tomcat lacked the necessary hardware to distinguish friend from foe; and Iraqi aircrews turned and ran from Tomcat radars, owing to their experiences against Iranian Tomcats during the Iran-Iraq War.”
The Tomcat’s sole aerial triumph of the conflict and its final accomplishment while in US service was against an Iraqi Mi-8 transport helicopter. The shootdown took place on February 6, 1991, when Lieutenant Stuart “Meat” Broce and his RIO and squadron commander, Commander Ron “Bongo” McElraft, obliterated the Mi-8.
However, this was the only kill made by the F-14 Tomcat throughout the operation.
While the F-14 Tomcat barely saw any air-to-air combat during this defining war in the Gulf, the F/A-18 Hornet managed to garner a reputation for its versatility shown during Operation Desert Storm. According to some accounts, this played a role in the Navy’s decision to forgo the F-14 in favor of the next-generation F/A-18E/F Super Hornet some years later.
Nevertheless, the Tomcat was modified after this conflict and went on to participate in the bombings of Bosnia and Yugoslavia. It was pulled out again to conduct air strikes on Iraq in the late 1990s.
During its last two conflicts, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the intervention in Afghanistan, Navy Tomcats dropped thousands of bombs, including GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).
An F-14 from the USS Theodore Roosevelt carried out the Tomcat’s final combat mission in 2006, using a laser-guided bomb to hit an Iraqi target. The FA-18E/F Super Hornet replaced the Tomcat in US service that September.
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