Designed for fleet air defense, the F-14 was armed with a powerful long-range missile and, with a powerful new radar, could attack multiple air targets at once.
The United States Navy’s F-14 Tomcat was the most powerful fleet defense aircraft of its time. Its AIM-54 Phoenix missile had a long range, the new AWG-9 radar and fire control system were very powerful, the combination could track and engage multiple targets effectively at the same time, at least on paper. But would it work in the real world?
Previous tests
In late April 1972, two pre-production Grumman F-14 Tomcat aircraft assigned to the Naval Air Missile Test Center, Point Mugu, California, began testing the Hughes AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missile. The aircraft involved included office number 157983, the fourth Tomcat built and also the first to receive Hughes Aircraft Company’s new AN/AWG-9 radar and fire control system, and office number 157988, the ninth F-14 produced.
Previous testing of the AIM-54 at Point Mugu began in 1965 with an A-3 Skywarrior as the test aircraft. The first Phoenix missile intercept was on May 12, 1966, when a drone was destroyed. The first multiple launch (2) of the AIM-54 occurred from an F-111B against a pair of drones in March 1969.
The test pilots for the program were Commander John R. Wilson Jr. and Lieutenant Commander Jack Hawver, Radar Intercept Officer (RIO). Previous tests conducted by the program included the downing of a target drone at over 100 miles, along with other simulated targets of fighters, bombers and even cruise missiles that were successfully engaged and destroyed.
In April 1973, flying at Mach 1.5 at 50,000 feet, a BQM-34E high-speed target drone, simulating a bomber, used intermittent noise jamming, but was detected at long range at 132 nautical miles (NM) by the F-14 flying at 44,000 feet. Accelerating to Mach 1.5, the F-14 launched a Phoenix at the BQM-34E at a range of 110 NM. The AIM-54 flew to an altitude of 103,500 feet before falling to a lethal distance in less than 3 minutes, covering a horizontal distance of 72.5 NM. Never before had an air-to-air missile flown so high and so far to intercept it.
Since the AWG-9 was a multi-channel system with six channels dedicated to guiding the AIM-54 toward six different targets, the most important test was against multiple targets, six to be exact. This would strain aircraft, crew, missiles and avionics in preparation for perceived threats from the Soviet Union, including the new Tupolev Tu-26 (Tu-22) ‘Backfire’ swing-wing bomber.
The six against six test
Wilson and Hawver departed Point Mugu with a full complement of six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles, two mounted under each wing on pylons and four more under the fuselage of their F-14. Three Lockheed QT-33 (target drone versions of the T-33 trainer) were launched in opposition, along with two BQM-34A and one BQM-34E, all high-speed remotely controlled target drones. The drones would simulate Backfire bombers attacking the US fleet. It was November 21, 1973.
Spread over a 15 NM front, the six targets were at altitudes between 20,000 and 24,000 feet and were moving at speeds of Mach 0.6 to Mach 1.1. Flying their F-14 at 28,400 feet at Mach .78, Wilson and Hawver detected the drones at distances ranging from 85 to 115 NM.
Wilson and Hawver selected the first three targets manually while the AWG-9 computer calculated and selected the second priority targets. At a distance of 31 NM, the first Phoenix was launched towards its target, followed by five more in a time of 38 seconds, with only 3.5 seconds between launches of the shortest interval. Wilson had launched the first Phoenix; Hawver fired two through five and Wilson fired the sixth and final AIM-54. Below is shown video sequences of the test.
In these rare images, the F-14 fires six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles and assigns them to six individual targets. It turned out that only 4 drones were destroyed due to drone failures, but the results gave the system a rating of 80%.
Results
Four of the targets were hit, including two of the QT-33, one of the BQM-34A and the BQM-34E. A BQM-34A experienced a flight control module failure, causing the AIM-54 targeting it to break lock with the drone; A Phoenix missile had a radar antenna failure, causing it to miss its QT-33 target.
The BQM-34 that had a failed flight control module was not tested, with the only error attributed to the failure of the Phoenix antenna, giving the test an overall success rate of 80 percent. The test was considered an overwhelming success that demonstrated the capabilities of the Navy’s new F-14 fighter in the fleet air defense role and the deadly combination of the AIM-54 Phoenix missile and the AWG-9 radar and fire control system.
While it was rarely seen carrying a full complement of six AIM-54s, and the missiles were not used in actual combat but only on rare occasions (twice with three missiles fired in total) by the United States Navy, another customer had purchased the Tomcat (79 examples) along with its powerful Phoenix missile and radar system.
That country was Iran, and the F-14 and Phoenix would prove their combined effectiveness in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988, with the AIM-54’s long range being highly respected and recognized by anyone approaching Iranian airspace for decades. It is believed that the last remaining operational Tomcats may have been destroyed in the recent conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States in March 2026.
