Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: tom slick
Our local warbirds museum has a F-14, I didn't realize how big they are! That is a very large fighter.
Yeah...it sure is!!
To carry 6 of the 1,000lb AIM-54 missiles around which it was designed took a big airplane. Further, to get the radar performance (power out, and beam width)needed to meet operational requirements took a big antenna, so the nose of the airplane had to be sized for that big antenna.
I still miss the jet.
Probably always will...
My understanding is it was tested on an f-15, but did not do well. The AIM-54 with the 130lb or so warhead, could only be carried by the Tomcat. Was this due to the nacelle area between the engines?
No, the missile was never even tested on the F-15.
Specific AWG-9 weapon system - missile communication (missile messages) were needed to guide the missile in flight. It would launch from the airplane, climb to very, very high altitude and fly towards a track file that was built by the weapon system. Then, it would transition to an active radar intercept. In active mode, the radar in the Phoenix would find the target and guide the missile to the kill. There were a system, the AWG-9 radar and the AIM-54 were built to work together and they were both unique.
Without all that data link - the AIM-54 was stuck in semi-active mode, guiding on the fighter radar reflection, and it could not be anything more than a heavy, slow AIM -7 with a big, 135lb warhead.
With that communication, it was capable of exceptional range, of simultaneous multiple target engagement, and "launch and leave".
The F-15 radar never had the support that the AIM-54 needed.
A couple of decades later, the AMRAAM and radar upgrades gave the F-15 some of the AIM-54/AWG-9 capability. .