I have a few questions regarding the kind of work done by the Jets at NSAWC particularly the F-14A side of things back in the day.
Did/Do these aircraft ever carry air to ground ordnance for training(HE or Inert) and what missiles would you expect to see on the Big training Cats(AIM-7/54?). As far as I have seen the usual loadout was only ever 1x AIM-9 CATM and ACMI pod and no External tanks. But I’m after something a little bit tougher looking yet realistic if I can(JDAM or GBU would look good?) If anyone could help me out with a feasible loadout for the Cat that would be fantastic.
I suggest you ask this question over on the ARC boards (aircraft resource center, jet modeling forum). There’s at least one person there who’s currently at Fallon and could probably point you in the right direction.
As far as my reasearch goes the F-14 was developed with a Air to Ground capability but this was not used put to full use until the first gulf war. I too am working on a model of the Cat and it will be an early version that did not have AGM’s or bombs. The typical load out I’ve seen are 2X AIM-9L’s and 2x AIM-7’s OR AIM-120’s on wing stations Under carriage weapons can be dumb bombs or smart bombs since the AIM-54 was retired.
This site has been the best reference source I’ve used for my Tomcat models:
The Tomcat was never capable of carrying the AIM-120 and it didn’t start doing air to ground until summer of 92. Smart weapons didn’t come about until 2000, except for LGB’s, they came around 93/94. A typical load before air to ground ordnance was 2 x AIM-7, 2 x AIM-9M and 2 x AIM-54. After air to ground and the LATRIN Pod it was usually 1 x AIM-9M, 1 x AIM-7, a LATRIN Pod on sta 8B and air to ground ordnance on the weapons rail. A few of our birds had Phoenix pylons on sta 1b so instead of a AIM-7 we would carry a AIM-54. The Phoenix was retired in September of 04 or 05, can’t remember which year.
We didn’t use AIM-9L’s after the mid to late 80’s and there is no visual difference between the -9 Lima and the -9 Mike’s, all changes were internal.
For Desert Storm I know VF-103 and VF-74 flew with 3 x AIM-7’s, 2 x AIM-9M and 2 x AIM-54’s.