F-14 B(U)

[Father Cool]

Hi, I keep hearing about an F-14B(U) in development but cant see any official word on this anywhere. Is it in development and when are we likely to see it if it is?

[Zabuzard]

13 minutes ago, Father Cool said:

Hi, I keep hearing about an F-14B(U) in development but cant see any official word on this anywhere. Is it in development and when are we likely to see it if it is?

Yeah, that is correct. Some in-progress pics of the F-14B(U) have (accidentally) been shared a few months ago in various channels. Shortly after the team has confirmed to work on this module in Discord. There is not much more to it yet, as the team focuses on finishing the Early F-14A first (which is part of the F-14 module you guys purchased).

The latest "official statement" to the B(U) is:

Quote

We’re also growing - and are excited to talk about the A-6E and F-14BU being in active development and [...]

Edited September 2 by Zabuzard

[Zabuzard]

I believe it was this one:

 

[Father Cool]

Ok thanks for that. I don't get a lot of time for DCS but I was a weekly tomcat driver on DCS for about 4 years or so flying no other aircraft.

When the Eurofighter was announced by HB I was majorly excited to be getting a new aircraft that I wanted to get my teeth into, still waiting on that. In the meantime RB released the F15E and I jumped straight in, spending my precious time learning that aircraft and parking the F-14.

To say I was annoyed when the bottom fell out of the F-15E is an understatement, I am a full online squadron pilot and never really do single player, so when the F-15E stalled the whole of my squadron dropped the F-15E making my dedicated learning worthless.

Since then (just over a year and a half now) I haven't picked DCS back up. I am eagerly awaiting the Eurofighter which seems to be taking an age. When I heard that HB were finally giving the Tomcat some more modern love I again got excited, I was hoping for a D with MFD's etc from day one but a B(U) will suffice. I was hoping the B(U) could be a stopgap until the EF arrives but I am doubting that now.

Edited September 2 by Father Cool

[Silver_Dragon]

From Heatblur Discord. (last update on July 2025)
 

Quote

 

Hi @everyone!

Hope everyone’s having a fantastic summer! We’re having a busy one here at Heatblur; but it may not look like it just yet. Sadly, we had very lofty goals for various releases in these summer months, but the ambition of our roadmap has made it sensitive to forks in the road and delays; and subsequently the next DCS patch will again be empty and devoid of Heatblur changes.

We’ve got a simply put, comprehensive list of new additions, changes and updates to essentially every product coming! Some of these include another large Viggen update, the early -A for the Tomcat, the A-6E AI, and a slew of new stuff for the F-4 such as Jester Pave Spike, Combat Tree, a novel EFB feature, and persistent aircraft; a feature that will be especially interesting for mission makers, campaign creators and the player him or herself- who may now have to manage how they treat the aircraft. For this we also improved the wear and tear systems, added various new failures and more. The complexity and size of some of these additions have made it necessary for us to avoid the monthly update cadence, and we've run into some delays on finalizing/testing some of these features.

We’re also growing - and are excited to talk about the A-6E and F-14BU being in active development and the imminent release of the F-4E Phantom II for Microsoft Flight Simulator! This is in parallel with, of course, the continued quest to scale the colossus that is the Eurofighter.

We’ll be writing much more about many of these additions and changes in an upcoming development update; but in the meantime we’re working hard to start delivering features throughout August and September. Apologies for another empty changelog from Heatblur for now, but no matter how diligent our branching would be, all products are in such a state of flux that it would be difficult to ship smaller fixes without sacrificing the testing process.

Thank you for your patience and support, we hope it’ll be worth it once many of the elements above drop and we’re excited to share more ASAP!

Sincerely,
Team Heatblur 

 

Remember F-14B(U) was show on "2025 and beyond" video, with a Sparrowhawk HUD. 

[irq11]

and there is this post
 

 

[FriedrichNix]

so ... will the F14B(U) be part of the F14A/B module or be a seperate, new module to purchase? Until now I was more under the impression, that it will be an addition to the already sold F14A/B module (like the Early A).

[Silver_Dragon]

27 minutes ago, FriedrichNix said:

so ... will the F14B(U) be part of the F14A/B module or be a seperate, new module to purchase? Until now I was more under the impression, that it will be an addition to the already sold F14A/B module (like the Early A).

Surely, has a F-14 module expansion, no a new module, they need use all F-14 base. On F-14 Roadmap, the F-14 early has planned.

Edited September 5 by Silver_Dragon

[Dudikoff]

Personally, I wouldn't mind paying for it (discounted for F-14 owners, naturally) as it's quite a lot of extra work that was never mentioned on the roadmap, but that's up to HB to decide, of course.

Though, I would really love to have the F-14D as well (even without IRST if that's the major issue with it). It's a shame it got canned from the start, basically; it would have been so cool with the A2G SAR modes (as on the F-15E), AMRAAMs, etc.

 

Edited September 5 by Dudikoff

[Convoy]

14 hours ago, FriedrichNix said:

so ... will the F14B(U) be part of the F14A/B module or be a seperate, new module to purchase? Until now I was more under the impression, that it will be an addition to the already sold F14A/B module (like the Early A).

Seperate module

[Zabuzard]

21 hours ago, FriedrichNix said:

so ... will the F14B(U) be part of the F14A/B module or be a seperate, new module to purchase? Until now I was more under the impression, that it will be an addition to the already sold F14A/B module (like the Early A).

It will not be included in the existing deal, the extra work is quite massive in comparison. Details are unclear at the moment as the B(U) is still out a bit. Focus currently lies on the Early-A.

There will be more time to talk about the B(U) later, cheers.

[PhantomHans]

On 9/6/2025 at 2:46 AM, Zabuzard said:

Details are unclear at the moment as the B(U) is still out a bit. Focus currently lies on the Early-A.

I'm excited for both of these.  I know the Early-A model is promised from the start, but in order to keep development going on the B(U) I would crack my wallet open if that's what it took.

 

On 9/5/2025 at 8:00 AM, Dudikoff said:

Though, I would really love to have the F-14D as well (even without IRST if that's the major issue with it). It's a shame it got canned from the start, basically; it would have been so cool with the A2G SAR modes (as on the F-15E), AMRAAMs, etc.

The 14D even without the IRST would be great but I think, sadly, HB have made it clear that they won't even try, because this is DCS and we don't just make stuff up.
(Unless we're building an F/A-18C Frankenhornet, ignoring features and capabilities in order to leave them off of our F-5E, F-15C, or F-16C, or just plain making stuff up so we can F-35.)

This brings me to a request for the future F-14 updates...

I would love to see some stub features added in that could be accessed through the use of mods that were intentionally made to break the IC checks to keep them off of the servers.
For example, for us to have the ability to enable AIM-120s, AGM-88, AGM-84, and AGM-65s, in a manner that gives us a little functional control over them but keeps them out of IC servers.  The Tomcat was tested with AIM-120s on the outboard hardpoints, IIRC with and without the twin launch rails, and it worked although it was not adopted.  The AGM-88 was tested on the F-14D prototype, and from what I understand, also worked although not adopted.  Given the new found strike role for the Tomcat later in it's life, adding AGM-84 or AGM-65 under the outboard hardpoints seems possible, if there was unlimited money, although obviously those weren't even tested.  Could still be a fun option to have especially for building interesting and unique missions.

Edited 6 hours ago by PhantomHans