GW8345

That is not a legal load, the bomb on the left belly station (Station 3R) is a GBU-31(v)4 JDAM, the F-14 was never cleared to carry the GBU-31(v)4 JDAM, only the GBU-31(v)2 variant (and on their last cruise the GBU-38(v)2). If the bomb was a GBU-31(v)2 it would be a legal load but I've never seen a load like that carried. GW

As Jim stated, the F-14D's used a "dry" Phoenix designated the AIM-54C+ which did not require any liquid coolant (call Coolanal). this means that the coolant pump housed in the right forward fairing and all the plumbing for the weapon rails and wings could be removed. This saved a lot of maintenance man hours since we were forever fixing leaks and servicing that system. The AIM-54C+'s looked identical on the outside except they did not have the coolant ports on the top of the missile by the forward lug. hth GW

VF-74 only flew the A's and B's, they got their B's in 1988 and flew them until they were decomm'ed in April of 94.

Just to clarify one thing, there was not "mod" required to make a Tomcat a Bombcat except for the Bombing Rails, all Tomcats were built with the air to ground weapon delivery system already installed (the system was similar to the A-7E's weapon delivery system). They could carry Mk 80 series GP Bombs, GBU-10/10/16, GBU-24B/B, CBU's, Mk 62/63 Quickstrike Mines and practice bombs/flares. The Lantrin give the Tomcat the ability to designate their own targets and not have to rely on another source, GPS came around in late 99/early 2000 depending on squadron and this allowed for the car

The reason why the Weapon Rails were a different color than the aircraft is because they are not considered part of the aircraft and not painted when the aircraft was painted, in fact, it was illegal to paint the rails (and any other missile launcher/pylon) when the aircraft was painted without specific authorization from the Intermediate Level Maintenance (I-Level maintenance) activity. All launchers, rails, pylons, bomb racks, etc are what is called AA&E (Armament and Ammunition Equipment) and are therefore painted by the I level folks during rework. There is no scheduled for