combat aircraft

The move to NSAWC

As the Tomcat’s  eet mission shifted

from  ghter-only to precision bomber

in the mid-1990s, TOPGUN — and its

quartet of F-14As — was at the forefront

of this change. Only high-time jets were

ever supplied to the unit, which steadily

worked its way through more than

30 airframes as aircraft were retired to

the ‘boneyard’ at Davis-Monthan AFB,

Arizona, and replaced by other  eet-

surplus Tomcats.

Aside from being  own as back-up

aircraft by students and for instructor

check  ights, the aircraft were

progressively used as teaching aids thanks

to their ability to simulate the beyond

visual range multi-sensor threat posed

by MiG-29s, MiG-31s and Su-27s, as well

as potentially hostile Western types —

speci cally Iranian F-14As.

Adversary units had traditionally opted

not to use jets in  eet service, since the

value of  ghting a dissimilar type was

greatly appreciated. However, a Tomcat —

even a weary A-model — could provide

an accurate representation of a potential

threat, rendering it useful to the NFWS.

TOPGUN began its move to NAS Fallon

in 1996 as the US Navy consolidated its

tactical air warfare training at the Nevada

naval air station. There, the NFWS became

Above: An NSAWC

F-14A (BuNo

162591) fl ies

over Lake Tahoe

with an F/A-18A

and F-16B, both

also from Fallon.

Ted Carlson/

Fotodynamics

Left: The Tomcat

line at NAS Fallon

in spring 2003.

The F-14s were

maintained

by civilian

contractors.

Ted Carlson/

Fotodynamics

part of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare

Center (NSAWC) along with the Carrier

Airborne Early Warning School and the

Naval Strike Warfare Center. Although

the unit’s designation and location had

changed, the mission remained the same.

Tomcat RIO LT (later CAPT) Randy ‘Abdul’

Stearns, fresh from completing a front-

line tour with VF-143 and on his way to

serve as a strike  ghter tactics instructor

with the Strike Fighter Weapons School

Atlantic, was a student in the last NFWS

class to be taught at Miramar in 1997

prior to TOPGUN’s move to Fallon and

absorption by NSAWC. ‘We were only at

Miramar for two weeks to do the 1-v-1

portion of the syllabus, completing the

rest of the class out of Fallon. At the time,

TOPGUN had six F-14As assigned [three

or four of which were ‘up’ at any one time]

that they were using for the class, as the

 eet had stopped loaning Tomcats to

them. They were the oldest F-14s you

could imagine and were slated for the

‘boneyard’ after our class. Technically,

they could be used for adversary work,

but since they had plenty of F/A-18s to

perform that role — and the fact that the

F-14 was tough to maintain for NSAWC —

they were mostly used by students and

instructors on ‘Blue Air’ events.

‘You could count on at least one engine

stall per sortie with these old TF30-

powered F-14As — an event I initially

54

// F-14 TOMCATS

September 2018 // http://www.combataircraft.net

50-57 Supp_Tomcats C.indd 54 19/07/2018 12:23