ACEVAL/AIMVAL F-14As

[Keroburner89]

Hey folks,

 

I'm trying to get a better gauge of the HMS receivers used on the F-14A during ACEVAL/AIMVAL.

 

The best image I have is a larger version of this, but it's still quite hard to make out shape, size etc. If i squint enough it almost looks like there's something on both left and right hand side rails. Additonally, the RIO coaming has something too, just aft of the forward ejection seat

A step further would be to ID the system and try and get images of that if they exist.

 

Of course, there's a movie reel where I just not worry about it and approximate it as best as possible in scale based on those images. Be great to know if anyone else out there has additional info on these particular jets.

Dare I open the can of worms on the things that were carried during this period, like what we can see in station 8a in this image?

 

Cheers - Keroburner

Edited December 18, 2025 by Keroburner89

[Skull Leader]

I'm friends with Dan "Turk" Pentecost, who was one of the pilots that participated in this little adventure. I've asked him on multiple occasions if he had any images of the HMS gear they installed in those jets and he didn't have anything that showed them (nor any photos that weren't already being circulated). The pods you see on Station 8A were nothing more than telemetry-gathering pods for the exercise. They wanted something that gathered more data than your bog-standard ACMI/TACTS pods. 

 

Attached below is probably the best you're going to get for the addition above the RIO's console. Also of note are the two large cables wrapping behind the RIO's ejection seat. It's nothing to get too excited about, it's just a camera that was looking at the RIO. I don't think all four jets they sent had it either. 

 

A lot of people don't know that AIMVAL/ACEVAL was also the first dance for the Tomcat's new TCS system before it went to the fleet, and it paid for itself in spades. 

 

If you (broadly speaking here, not necessarily OP) have never read up about the AIMVAL/ACEVAL trials, it's worth checking out. They went a long way to show how the AIM-7 Sparrow was a pretty poor WVR dogfight missile due to the fact that the pilot had to keep the target in his forward arc (the AIM-7 is semi-guided, it requires a signal from the host radar to find it's target), which led to larger, more expensive aircraft losing WVR engagements to smaller, cheaper fighters (F-5s) using all-aspect heat-seeking missiles. A lot of the research from these trials led to the development of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the Sparrow's big brother on acid. 

Edited December 30, 2025 by Skull Leader