ejection for each crewman [RIO Delacruz
and pilot LT, later RADM, George ‘Stroker’
Wiko , both of whom were NSAWC
instructors] over the B-20 target range — a
big, dry, lake bed within the Fallon Range
Training Complex.’
Despite the F-14s being old, NSAWC
struggling to attract quality civilian
maintainers to Fallon to work on the
aircraft and the unit e ectively being ‘last
in the parts food chain’, BuNo 160408 was
the only Tomcat written o by TOPGUN
during its 12-year association with the
‘big ghter’.
Tomcats would remain active with
NSAWC until the nal examples were
retired to aircraft museums across the
country in October 2003. LT (later CDR) Ted
‘Chick’ Ricciardella was a RIO and one ofthe last naval ight o cers (NFOs) with the
unit to y the F-14 in the adversary role,
having been posted to Fallon following a
tour with VF-11. ‘I initially went through
the TOPGUN course in the Tomcat during
the summer of 2002. There were two F-14
crews and six F/A-18 pilots on the course,
as well as adversary and AIC [air intercept
controller] students [NFOs, destined for
the E-2C]. At that time, the TOPGUN course
was still really focused on air-to-air training
— this is still the case today, although now
much more air-to-ground training ows
throughout the syllabus.
‘We ew F-14As during the course,
which were tted with the once mighty
AN/AWG-9. A pulse Doppler radar with
analogue electronics, the AN/AWG-9
was cutting-edge technology whenit was developed in the 1960s and
introduced in the 1970s, but by 2002
it had been surpassed in technology
by air-to-air radars elded by most US
ghters. This in turn meant that it took
a good operator to get the most out of
the AN/AWG-9, ensuring that the Tomcat
remained both lethal and viable in the
ght. As a RIO, I took pride in working
the scope to its maximum potential,
being able to troubleshoot on the y
and bring in every other sensor available
to run an e ective intercept.
‘After successfully completing the
nine-week TOPGUN course, I stayed with
NSAWC as an instructor. There isn’t too
much surrounding the naval air station,
and that’s what makes the ying so great
here. As a TOPGUN instructor, you would56 September 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
// F-14 TOMCATS
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