I would like your thoughts as f14 pilots.

[Gun Jam]

I was playing online in TTI servers and we all know the hottest thing on the block right now is the 15. One thing that I noticed is there seems to be about the same number of f16s and f14s but it looks like the 18 guys are the ones who are having a go with the new 15.

Im hoping to get your opinions as f14 owners who have also tried out the 15. I want to avoid any bashing or un necessary criticism im just curious what you think about it after my limited observations of TTI.

I own both and I think the 15 is great im not upset about anything but the F14 was a day 1 purchase for me and ive been flying it since day 1. The f15 was also a day 1 purchase and I was ready to go all in on it and give the 14 a rest and invest some time in a new system. I liked the idea of all those weapons glued all over it, a functional hud, a modern nav system, all that fuel and maybe that new radar system.... 

I got the 15 started up and look in the rear seat....Hummmm

Taxied out rolled in full AB and popped the wheel brakes and was like hell yeah lets rip...watched the airspeed and acceleration....hummm

accelerated out to 600 and stuck it on its tail and was like yeah lets do it!! climbed till airspeed was 150 checked altitude...hum

dove down to 20k and got 400kts and was like yeah mock dogfight turn time... watched alpha, speed and gut feelings during turn...humph

landed and that was the end of my f15 career for now.

 

what's your opinion and if you decided to invest some time in the 15 in which fashion are you deploying it?

[draconus]

6 hours ago, Gun Jam said:

what's your opinion and if you decided to invest some time in the 15 in which fashion are you deploying it?

Idk why you made a thread here but I'm going with the Strike Eagle as a modern strike aircraft it is. Why some expected it to perform like the C is beyond me.

[Lt_Jaeger]

Parked the F-15 in the hangar already, too much diddle diddle for me. Only thing that will challenging the Kingpin position of the F-14 will be the F-4. 

I knew it would happened as soon as I bought the eagle on day one. If ever a F-15A will show up, I will re evaluate, though. 

[RustBelt]

You can't really compare the Mudhen and the Tomcat for two big reasons. One, the Mudhen is less than a month into early access. Assume many things aren't square. 

And two, they're really doing different jobs. The Hen is designed to lift crazy amounts of attack munitions, loiter, and defend itself. The Tomcat was a Fighter interceptor that had strike capabilities. And sure near the end the D was doing similar work to the Strike Eagle, but only as a means of filling in the hole left by the A-6 while the Super Hornet was being developed. The Mud Hen is also using decades later technology that was built specifically for it. 

In a lot of ways it makes sense the Hornet Drivers are enamored with the Strike Eagle. The Strike Eagle does better what the Hornet does, Ground attack with self defense in one package. It just can't fly off a boat. 

[Spirale]

Hornet can ground attack with self defense too why not? And when the APG73 will have his true capabilities it will be another story

[Nealius]

I'm a simple person.

I fly Tomcat when I want:

- Boats

- A2A

- hands-on flying

I fly Mudhen when I want:

- low-level night strike

- to bomb the ever-living crap out of something

- BVR without holding the backseater's hands

[Karon]

In a sense, the Strike Eagle is the closest alternative to the F-14D: it has multicrew, air-to-ground capability, updated avionics (INS, later datalink, GPS, databus), they weight almost the same, and the APG-71 is based on the APG-70, and so on.

But

The cockpit workflow is vastly different, its primary purpose is different, there is no AIM-54, it is not carrier-based, it has no integrated sensors (e.g. TCS/IRST), it seems to accelerate better, but has lower top speed (but it may be due to the EA status), and many other differences.
Personally, it also lacks the charisma, so to speak, of many Navy aircraft, but this is a personal opinion, of course.

So

Can you mock an F-14D with a SE? Yeah-almost-ish. But it is a poor man's option in this context. The SE seems to be a really nice module, it's worth getting it if you like it.

 

Shameless video plug:

Spoiler

 

 

[Snappy]

On 6/30/2023 at 1:53 PM, Lt_Jaeger said:

Parked the F-15 in the hangar already, too much diddle diddle for me. Only thing that will challenging the Kingpin position of the F-14 will be the F-4. 

I knew it would happened as soon as I bought the eagle on day one. If ever a F-15A will show up, I will re evaluate, though. 

Serious question: Why did you buy the SE then in the first place ? Just interested in your reasoning behind it.

was it the -flashy-new-thing - feeling?

[Lt_Jaeger]

3 hours ago, Snappy said:

Serious question: Why did you buy the SE then in the first place ? Just interested in your reasoning behind it.

was it the -flashy-new-thing - feeling?

Yeap, exactly. Like I said, I knew it would happen this way, but I'm also interested in what's possible in DCS and every new module pushes the boundary a little. 

I will take the Hen out once in a while, but most probably only for a leisure trip without serious weapons carry along. 

[draconus]

10 hours ago, Karon said:

has lower top speed (but it may be due to the EA status),

As long as the CFT stay on aircraft it'll be slower.

[Scofflaw]

I really disliked the F14 when it first came out; it felt like the Wright Flyer after spending so much time in the FA18.  After forcing myself to spend some time with the tomcat, it really grew on me.  It's one of my favorite modules today, so I don't rely on my first impressions anymore.

I do find we are reaching a point in DCS where modules are starting to overlap, but that's not complaint.  I enjoy flying the same mission in different jets to see how it plays out differently.  Aside from naval operations, the F14, F15, F16, and FA18 can mostly accomplish the same things, so it's a matter of taste at this point.  Having more options is always a good thing.

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by Scofflaw

[Bosun]

I fly both of them, and as mentioned from others, each has it's role on the battlefield.  

I fly the F-14 for fighting CAP missions.
I fly the F-15 if I want to wreck stuff.

I will say that I'm finding that the F-15e has a steeper learning curve than the F-14 due to the more complex avionics and weapons programming available.  My only complaint on it so far is how much of my 'play' time is sitting on the tarmac programming things.  There are a few easy ways that RAZBAM could lessen that load a little with some options, and perhaps they will.  But over all, I've been enjoying it as a different kind of aircraft than the Tomcat or F-16, in that it is the heavy-weight hitter for ground targets that those two aircraft were never designed to be.

[bies]

It's a mistake to write just F-15, not F-15E in this case. As there is a big difference in performance and role between F-15A/C, top air superiority fighter through 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and strike airfraft derivative F-15E.

F-15E is dedicated ground pounder, it doesn't have flight performance of lightweight fighter variants F-15A/C, but it has the range and specialized avionics and low flying navigation to do the job.

No point flexing F-14A/B against F-15E. If Razbam makes F-15A or C in the future there will be far more sense to compare it to our F-14.

Edited July 12, 2023 by bies

[WarthogOsl]

Just out of curiosity, how is the F-15E's performance versus the F-14A in the air to air role?  I fly the F-14A usually, but I see lots of people flying Strike Eagles with an all A2A load out.

Edited July 12, 2023 by WarthogOsl

[howie87]

I feel like the F-15E is going to require a lot of study time and an enormous amount of button mapping. The F-14B is certainly simpler to get to grips with. At the moment I'm trying to decide which of the 'teen series' I want to be my primary aircraft and I'm sorry to say that I'm leaning towards the F-16C simply because I don't have the time (no fox 1's, anti-ship or cruise missiles, or carrier landings to learn).

I'm sure I'll play with the F-15E again when the TFR is implemented though (unless we get a block 40 viper!)

[draconus]

8 hours ago, WarthogOsl said:

Just out of curiosity, how is the F-15E's performance versus the F-14A in the air to air role?  I fly the F-14A usually, but I see lots of people flying Strike Eagles with an all A2A load out.

People are just testing it out thinking of it as the FF 15C version, which it is not. In BVR it's rather AMRAAM vs AIM-54 advantages, in WVR the 15E loses it's teeth due to draggy and heavy CFTs at least until it gets AIM-9X/HMCS.

8 hours ago, howie87 said:

I feel like the F-15E is going to require a lot of study time and an enormous amount of button mapping. The F-14B is certainly simpler to get to grips with. At the moment I'm trying to decide which of the 'teen series' I want to be my primary aircraft and I'm sorry to say that I'm leaning towards the F-16C simply because I don't have the time (no fox 1's, anti-ship or cruise missiles, or carrier landings to learn).

It's only as simple as the systems and features you want to use. If you stay only in pilot's pit the F-14 is much easier in workload. There's currently no AI WSO in 15E. Chose the one you like most is my advice, not the potential features it can use. Focus on A2A if that's what you like and all becomes much simpler. Don't forget the FC3 aircraft if the combat is your main concern.

[Voyager]

So what are the typical flight profiles for F-14 vs F-15E strike missions? 

From what I can tell, the F-14 can strike targets but does not really have a self-escort capability. It seems to have good self-defense capabilities, but it really looks like it needs someone else to open the door. 

Meanwhile the Strike Eagle has much more BVR capacity in a strike mission, but it seems to have much more trouble if things go to the merge, and from watching some YouTube flights, it really seems like you spend a lot of time configuring and programming things on the ground.

So it sort of sounds to me like the F-14 has less overall capability, but can go from zero to airborne much faster? 

[draconus]

49 minutes ago, Voyager said:

So it sort of sounds to me like the F-14 has less overall capability, but can go from zero to airborne much faster? 

It really depends on what exact F-14 and F-15E we're talking to say about capability and how quick you start up also depends on the crew. You don't have to program it all on the ground either. LANTIRN is almost the same atm but A2G radar is practically non-existent in the Tomcat.

[DD_Fenrir]

Lol, no, depending on the target requirements we can comfortably run a self escort strike. 

With a section of Tomcats you can run a one pass haul ass LGB strike on a single target and still carry 2x Phoenix which gives you, as a section excellent BVR capability.

Even with a tunnel of 4x Paveway we still can carry a single Phoenix and 2x AIM-9 - whilst I wouldn’t want to go looking for ACM in that configuration, if someone wants to try and bring it, then we’re quite capable of giving them a rough handling.

Can we carry as much as a Mudhen? No. Has it some impressive BVR credentials? Sure. But the F-14 ain’t exactly a slouch either.

Edited July 13, 2023 by DD_Fenrir

[Stackup]

22 minutes ago, DD_Fenrir said:

Even with a tunnel of 4x Paveway we still can carry a single Phoenix and 4 AIM-9

Um, what?  If you have 4x Paveways in the tunnel, the tunnel is full.  That leaves only the 4 shoulder pylons.  The Phoenix takes 1 and that leaves only 3 for AIM-9's and that's assuming another aircraft is lasing the target for you.  If you're self-lasing, the LANTIRN takes up yet another slot leaving you with only 2x AIM-9s.

[Dragon1-1]

Which isn't to say it isn't a respectable ACM loadout. A Phoenix to even the odds at the start, and then you're all set for a dogfight with the Sidewinders. That, or you can make a threat defend against a Phoenix and GTFO at high mach, most multirole designs won't catch you. If buddy-lasing or working with a JTAC, you can take two Phoenixes, which is a perfectly OK loadout for self escort.

[DD_Fenrir]

2 hours ago, Stackup said:

Um, what?  If you have 4x Paveways in the tunnel, the tunnel is full.  That leaves only the 4 shoulder pylons.  The Phoenix takes 1 and that leaves only 3 for AIM-9's and that's assuming another aircraft is lasing the target for you.  If you're self-lasing, the LANTIRN takes up yet another slot leaving you with only 2x AIM-9s.

Whoops, typo, thanks for the correction.

Edited July 13, 2023 by DD_Fenrir

[Gun Jam]

This is pretty awesome feedback I wasn't expecting this.  Thanks!

I got the mudhen for the following reasons.

1) I wanted to see what the amraam was capable of when launched from a plane that has radar that can perform at least as well as the tomcat. (are 65 mile shots a thing???...yes)

2) I didn't know its performance was that different than the C ( I did not see this mentioned by youtube testers until a few days after it went live)

3) I could tell dedication and care was dumped into this things development and wanted to support that.

4) Its new and everyone picked it up I didn't want to be left out lol

In my case I found that as expected it was going to take several months to become proficient with the jet but for now I decided that it is not a well enough rounded craft to dedicate the time to.  I also realized that I missed jester pretty quickly when crossing into the merge.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by Gun Jam