Grumman F-14 Tomcat F-14A

The F-14A was the version that brought the Tomcat into service and carried most of its career. It first flew on 21 December 1970 and was powered by two Pratt & Whitney TF30 turbofans, a powerplant inherited from the abandoned F-111B programme that suffered from compressor stalls for years; the Department of Defense eventually procured the improved TF30-P-414A, which cured the serviceability trouble without adding appreciable thrust.

The US Navy received 558 aircraft and the Imperial Iranian air arm a further 79, delivered from January 1976 onwards and already fitted with -414 series engines. Through the production run the airframe evolved in assembly blocks numbered in multiples of five, introducing changes to the tail cone, the chin sensor pod, the radio, the angle-of-attack probe, the flap and slat system, and the electronic countermeasures blisters. Late in its operational life precision strike weaponry was added, a role absent from the original design.