F-14 Tomcat FMC rates in Iraqi Freedom

[CheckGear]

So I was reading The Unseen War, a RAND Corp. analysis of the Iraqi Freedom air war (which I highly recommend) and came across some interesting numbers. Regarding the F-14's Fully Mission-Capable (FMC) statistics during the campaign:

 

F-14A: 89%

F-14B: 98%

F-14D: 78%

 

 

Honestly, I was shocked by these numbers. For all the talk of being a maintenance hog, the F-14A achieved a very high FMC. I was blown away by the F-14B's FMC (making me think Heatblur made the correct choice in releasing the B-variant first! :thumbup:) and surprised the Super Tomcat lagged so far behind.

 

 

Can anyone provide context and insight into these numbers? What do you make of it? Even the Super Hornet didn't do as well as the F-14B (while still achieving 90%, nothing to scoff at).

 

 

https://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB533.html

[Bearfoot]

 

Honestly, I was shocked by these numbers. For all the talk of being a maintenance hog, the F-14A achieved a very high FMC.

 

These are not mutually exclusive. It's more of a maintenance labor hour per flight hour thing. As well as correlated cost per flight hour. The high FMC rates speaks much more to the incredible "above and beyond" effort, commitment, dedication, skill, as well as training and organization, of the maintenance crews than the engineering of the F-14.

 

The love-her-but-wow-she's-a-lot-of-work comes across in a number of personal accounts (e.g., some of the stories in Bye-Bye Baby). The early days especially are collection of maintenance horror stories told with deep passionate affection:

 

"""

It was a constant challenge. But the rewards could bring tears to your eyes. I've been stabbed, cut, bruised, shocked, pinched, burned, and worse. Smashed finger. ... But let some non-Tomcat sailor say a disparaging word about my jet, and I'd rip him to pieces."

"""

[Spiceman]

Spot on!