Never understood all the Tomcat love

[JeepsGunsTanks]

8 minutes ago, John1 said:

How would it do?    It would overwhelm peer adversaries through sheer force of its Brrrtt personality.    The beloved Hog is the Chuck Norris of combat jets.  

 

So mythically awesome? 

[D Bellis]

On 11/16/2023 at 11:52 AM, Pete Fleischmann said:

First in the beauty pageant but last in the talent show. It just simply wasn’t that great...

The simple answer is propaganda. The general public tends to believe the sales brochure and hearsay without bothering to actually looking into anything. There are an infinite number of other examples beyond the F-14, notably the Spitfire and B-17. As long as something is promoted in the press with lots of pretty pictures, then people become convinced that turds are great. 

 

The funny thing is, there's absolutely NO WAY to convince "people" otherwise. Enlightening "people" otherwise is a completely futile effort. 

 

D

[Joe Hegedus]

3 hours ago, JeepsGunsTanks said:

 

 

 

Without the gun, what can an A-10 that Pete's F-16 can't do?

Come home with one engine out?  

 

(ducking for cover...)

[Marcel111]

The Iranians seemed to be quite fond of their Cats: 

 

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/former-iriaf-f-14-pilot-explains-how-he-was-able-to-dodge-20-matra-missiles-fired-at-his-tomcat-by-iraqi-fighter-jets/amp/

 

From all that I have read about the USAF‘s last significant A2A action, against Serbian Mig-29s, the F-15s would entirely avoid getting entangled in close-in engagements with the Fulcrums. Instead, they just picked them off with AIM-120 at a distance (despite the Mig trying to lure them into close-in engagements). Seems like the Tomcat would have been suited to this kind of fight (lots of missiles, powerful radar).

 

Cheers,

Marcel

[Oldbaldguy]

48 minutes ago, Marcel111 said:

 

Seems like the Tomcat would have been suited to this kind of fight (lots of missiles, powerful radar).

 

 

And yet the F-14 had a gun and its crews were trained at Top Gun.  Clearly somebody had other ideas.

[DrewH]

just another inter-service bar brawl.................

[John1]

So my question is - could a single Tomcat have destroyed the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britian?   

 

As a follow up, could it have defeated Napoleon at Waterloo?

[Pete Fleischmann]

1 hour ago, DrewH said:

just another inter-service bar brawl.................

never my intention. Just wanted a discussion about the Tomcat.

P

[Marcel111]

2 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

And yet the F-14 had a gun and its crews were trained at Top Gun.  Clearly somebody had other ideas.

Not following your logic… the F-22 has a gun and crews go to Nellis, but the profile where it is most advantageous isn’t within visual range

[Marcel111]

1 hour ago, John1 said:

So my question is - could a single Tomcat have destroyed the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britian?   

 

As a follow up, could it have defeated Napoleon at Waterloo?

Yes & of course it could!!! :-D

[Alex]

23 hours ago, JeepsGunsTanks said:

How would it do against the Russians, say in Poland next month?

 

 

After the F-35s got done establishing air superiority (in the process shooting down all three operational Su-57s), the A-10 would do great in Poland.  Even if you decide that MBTs are a bit too hard a target, all of the APCs, mobile howitzers, trucks, etc that Putin’s conscript Army depends on to get troops and supplies to the front will positively evaporate under that stream of 30mm fire.  We can leave the then isolated and unsupported MBTs to dudes with Javelins who, as the Ukrainians have demonstrated, can dismantle Russian tanks very efficiently.