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Description
There's something classically beautiful about the F-14 Tomcat. Star of "Top Gun," the Tomcat had actually been around long before that, developed as a fleet defense fighter to replace the F-4 Phantom II and the failed F-111B Aardvark. Armed with a plethora of missiles, including the 120-mile ranged AIM-54 Phoenix, the F-14 did see limited combat with the US Navy in the 1981 and 1989 Gulf of Sidra Incidents. In Iranian service, it saw a great deal of combat against Iraq from 1980-88 and reportedly did well. It left USN service last year, though the Iranians still fly a few.

Luckily, the Tomcat lives on in imagination. It's Mickey Simon's bird of choice in Area 88, and served as the inspiration for the VF-1 Veritech series in Robotech/Macross. So I thought it would be nice to add it to my fictional country's fictional naval air arm--because carrier aviation is awesome.

The squadron is obviously known as the Black Widows, and the elaborate markings on this F-14 harken back to the days when the US Navy went insane with squadron markings. Alas, in modern times everything's subdued, but not on this bird. Note that the hourglass motif is also carried on the ventral fins, and that this F-14 has a false canopy painted on the underside of the forward fuselage. The camouflage scheme is similar to modern US Navy camo, though darker.

Respectfully dedicated to all Tomcat Drivers and Tweakers.

Description
There's something classically beautiful about the F-14 Tomcat. Star of "Top Gun," the Tomcat had actually been around long before that, developed as a fleet defense fighter to replace the F-4 Phantom II and the failed F-111B Aardvark. Armed with a plethora of missiles, including the 120-mile ranged AIM-54 Phoenix, the F-14 did see limited combat with the US Navy in the 1981 and 1989 Gulf of Sidra Incidents. In Iranian service, it saw a great deal of combat against Iraq from 1980-88 and reportedly did well. It left USN service last year, though the Iranians still fly a few.

Luckily, the Tomcat lives on in imagination. It's Mickey Simon's bird of choice in Area 88, and served as the inspiration for the VF-1 Veritech series in Robotech/Macross. So I thought it would be nice to add it to my fictional country's fictional naval air arm--because carrier aviation is awesome.

The squadron is obviously known as the Black Widows, and the elaborate markings on this F-14 harken back to the days when the US Navy went insane with squadron markings. Alas, in modern times everything's subdued, but not on this bird. Note that the hourglass motif is also carried on the ventral fins, and that this F-14 has a false canopy painted on the underside of the forward fuselage. The camouflage scheme is similar to modern US Navy camo, though darker.

Respectfully dedicated to all Tomcat Drivers and Tweakers.