Will the F14BU allows pilot control radar?

[herobie]

Wondering whether pilot are able to direct control radar in the upcoming new plane, or it could still be controlled only by RIO?

[ValhallaAB]

No, unless you mean through jester AI or communication with a real person. no. The new firing cues for the pilot HUD might make it easier but I know very little of the Sparrowhawk HUD.

 

[Carl Bingo]

The F-14A/B can't, but the F-14D can. The AN/APG-71 is a truly modern radar, but for now, we can only look at the HOTAS in the front cockpit of the F-14D in the photo.

[Dragon1-1]

Hopefully now that the Iranian F-14s are officially gone, the US government will release its death grip on anything related to F-14D sooner or later. 

[ValhallaAB]

7 hours ago, Carl Bingo said:

The F-14A/B can't, but the F-14D can.

The F-14D HOTAS is visually very similar, unless the throttle has multiple inputs that force control over the radar (force pilot priority) then I don't see how controlling the AN/APG-71 from the front seat is possible. The pilot stick only changed the weapon select to mimic the stick on the F/A-18 from what I know. 

5 hours ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Hopefully now that the Iranian F-14s are officially gone.

Do we have clear sources for that? I know it's silly to state that there's even a number over two: actual Tomcat fuselages left in the entire world unless you count museums. Even if they exist they are probably so out of parts and tech that the danger of ''advanced'' documentation is gone or low but knowing some previous decisions, law and fear will hinder that hope. I was glad and sad at the same time when the drone footage got released.  

[Dragon1-1]

4 minutes ago, ValhallaAB said:

Do we have clear sources for that? 

Looks like it's not official yet, there was an announcement some time ago that they were supposed to be gone by now. It doesn't seem like it's officially retired yet.

In any case, those jets Israel took out were pretty much museum pieces, so worn out that they couldn't actually fight all that well, if at all (as seen by their utter inability to do anything about the Israeli strikes). Iran finally managed to buy Su-35s, I'm pretty sure that the Tomcats will be sent to static displays once those arrive.

[BadgerNZA]

2 hours ago, ValhallaAB said:

The F-14D HOTAS is visually very similar, unless the throttle has multiple inputs that force control over the radar (force pilot priority) then I don't see how controlling the AN/APG-71 from the front seat is possible. The pilot stick only changed the weapon select to mimic the stick on the F/A-18 from what I know. 

Do we have clear sources for that? I know it's silly to state that there's even a number over two: actual Tomcat fuselages left in the entire world unless you count museums. Even if they exist they are probably so out of parts and tech that the danger of ''advanced'' documentation is gone or low but knowing some previous decisions, law and fear will hinder that hope. I was glad and sad at the same time when the drone footage got released.  

The F-14Ds APG-71 can be controlled from the front seat, check out the Tomcast episode with "Fun" on the F-14Ds systems, the Pilot interviewer, Crunch (F-14D Pilot), clearly talks about and they both agree on being able to use the APG-71 from the front seat 

 

[scommander2]

Well, I will say that let's wait HB releases B(U) for the answer.

For "D", there are lots of home works for HB, such as AN/APG-71, IRST...

 

[MasaMan]

3 hours ago, scommander2 said:

Well, I will say that let's wait HB releases B(U) for the answer.

For "D", there are lots of home works for HB, such as AN/APG-71, IRST...

 

They just recently said that they won't do F-14D so I wouldn't hold my breath. It should be somewhere here on the forums.

[Zabuzard]

28 minutes ago, MasaMan said:

They just recently said that they won't do F-14D so I wouldn't hold my breath. It should be somewhere here on the forums.

(It is currently not planned)

[ValhallaAB]

14 hours ago, BadgerNZA said:

They both agree on being able to use the APG-71 from the front seat 

 

Could you please provide a timestamp on any exact comment. I listened through it after work but from what I remember ''Fun'' and ''Crunch'' both just vaguely said some functionality. Such as controlling PRF for the AN/APG-71, which seems to not be that relevant to the pilot and still I have not found any evidence or photos that there is any space for a good axis or 5-way switches to operate and STT/TWS/RWS lock bandits on the pilot MFD RIO-TID repeater with the pilot HOTAS setup of any Tomcat.

The way I see it is that the pilot can only touch MFD options and operate some functions such as mode, volume, range and PRF. Imanullgine a DCS F/A-18C radar screen without any HOTAS control. The top button is communication, middle is speedbreak, bottom is wingsweep. others look like simple 2-way switches, since I can't find any info on the PLM and other ACM buttons on the fingers of the throttle I simply have to guess.

Reminder: I personally don't know any F-14D pilots. I think use is the right word but operate is maybe generous, I hope I'm wrong but since the data is limited I feel like staying sceptical is the right call. (the 5-way switch on the stick should be from sources I found just a redesigned weapons selector)

 

[RustBelt]

That throttle picture looks like AI slop.

[ValhallaAB]

[Dudikoff]

There's a diagram of the throttle the F-14D Flight Manual which seems to be publicly available. Yes, the new stick hat is the weapon selector switch and I don't see any TD controls added to the throttle. It has only two buttons on the front side not seen on this image, nothing else IIRC.

I would presume the radar manipulation mentioned in the video would be limited to what's available on the MFD controls when the radar picture is shown.

Edited October 7 by Dudikoff

[draconus]

1 hour ago, Dudikoff said:

...I don't see any TD controls added to the throttle.

There's additional hat for radar modes (RDR, VSL...) and TDC on the left throttle.

Edited October 7 by draconus

[Q3ark]

If there’s a RIO in the aircraft why would they go to the bother of giving the pilot full radar controls? It’s not the pilots job, I doubt you’ll be controlling the radar from the front seat. 

[draconus]

2 minutes ago, Q3ark said:

If there’s a RIO in the aircraft why would they go to the bother of giving the pilot full radar controls? It’s not the pilots job, I doubt you’ll be controlling the radar from the front seat. 

Idk but the fact is the possibility is there in the D.

[scommander2]

3 hours ago, draconus said:

There's additional hat for radar modes (RDR, VSL...) and TDC on the left throttle.

Which model of Tomcat?  Thanks.

[draconus]

6 minutes ago, scommander2 said:

Which model of Tomcat?  Thanks.

The D model.

[BadgerNZA]

On 10/7/2025 at 12:05 AM, ValhallaAB said:

Could you please provide a timestamp on any exact comment. I listened through it after work but from what I remember ''Fun'' and ''Crunch'' both just vaguely said some functionality. Such as controlling PRF for the AN/APG-71, which seems to not be that relevant to the pilot and still I have not found any evidence or photos that there is any space for a good axis or 5-way switches to operate and STT/TWS/RWS lock bandits on the pilot MFD RIO-TID repeater with the pilot HOTAS setup of any Tomcat.

The way I see it is that the pilot can only touch MFD options and operate some functions such as mode, volume, range and PRF. Imanullgine a DCS F/A-18C radar screen without any HOTAS control. The top button is communication, middle is speedbreak, bottom is wingsweep. others look like simple 2-way switches, since I can't find any info on the PLM and other ACM buttons on the fingers of the throttle I simply have to guess.

Reminder: I personally don't know any F-14D pilots. I think use is the right word but operate is maybe generous, I hope I'm wrong but since the data is limited I feel like staying sceptical is the right call. (the 5-way switch on the stick should be from sources I found just a redesigned weapons selector)

 

41:54 in the episode, Fun says that the pilot could control the IRST, Link 16 and some of the APG-71 Modes. In the context of the episode, modes refers to functionality inside a certain mode, for example, if one of the modes the pilot was able to control was RWS, then the pilot could operate the WCS functionality associated with that mode (from what i can gather, im not sure what modes the pilot could actually control). The F-14Ds throttle also had a TDC on the left grip forward, i am referencing diagrams that clearly show a "Throttle Designator Controller" being on the front of the left-hand throttle grip.

[Dudikoff]

50 minutes ago, BadgerNZA said:

The F-14Ds throttle also had a TDC on the left grip forward, i am referencing diagrams that clearly show a "Throttle Designator Controller" being on the front of the left-hand throttle grip.

Oh, do you have a link to such a diagram? I've skimmed through the pilot's manual and on the throttle diagram I've seen, I didn't notice it, but it wasn't a diagram explaining the throttle controls.

[draconus]

31 minutes ago, Dudikoff said:

Oh, do you have a link to such a diagram? I've skimmed through the pilot's manual and on the throttle diagram I've seen, I didn't notice it, but it wasn't a diagram explaining the throttle controls.

That'd be violation of 1.16. It looks like a button. It was a CAGE/SEAM on A/B left throttle but on the D is the TDC analog hat. On the right throttle there was PLM button on A/B but on the D there is CAGE/SEAM 4-way multifunction hat.

[ValhallaAB]

After further listening and reading (Danny Coremans and Tony Holmes), the F-14D's mysterious left throttle grip TDC seems to function much like the DCS F/A-18C Hornet TDC-to-MFD, including radar functionality. 

[BadgerNZA]

10 hours ago, Dudikoff said:

Oh, do you have a link to such a diagram? I've skimmed through the pilot's manual and on the throttle diagram I've seen, I didn't notice it, but it wasn't a diagram explaining the throttle controls.

I don’t really feel like getting banned lol

[Rhrich]

On 10/6/2025 at 12:19 AM, BadgerNZA said:

The F-14Ds APG-71 can be controlled from the front seat, check out the Tomcast episode with "Fun" on the F-14Ds systems, the Pilot interviewer, Crunch (F-14D Pilot), clearly talks about and they both agree on being able to use the APG-71 from the front seat 

 

This is correct 

On 10/7/2025 at 2:59 PM, Q3ark said:

If there’s a RIO in the aircraft why would they go to the bother of giving the pilot full radar controls? It’s not the pilots job, I doubt you’ll be controlling the radar from the front seat. 

They would cooperate. Remember they also had the IRST, and it could be used seperatly. That’s also true of the lantirn. 
 

Never flown a two seater, but it does not require much imagination to think of many operational advantages