NO POINTS FOR SECOND PLACE

[Music] The need for air supremacy over the past 60 years has been an intermittent yet driving force in the development of fighter aircraft. And one by one certain design and performance characteristics became the criteria against which new fighters were developed. Now for the first time a practical multi-m missission fighter emerges that balances all the criteria required for a successful fighter. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] when you consider that man had just succeeded in sustaining powered flight for a matter of seconds in 193. It was more astounding that in 1917, an agile flying machine mounting synchronized guns was influencing the outcome of largecale war on the Western Front and forging a doctrine of air supremacy that would affect the conduct and outcome of all subsequent wars. Air battles ever since have been won by aggressive pilots in aircraft that either enhanced or limited their chances for victory. Success in aerial combat was related to their ability to see the enemy first, put him on the defensive, outperform, and destroy him. [Music] While the maneuverings of Lbury and Imlman have not changed, design characteristics that would allow the pilot to keep track of the enemy once he was found, then outmaneuver and outlast him, were to influence the development and success of every fighter in the years to come. It took 20 years and the certainty of war in Europe to obsolete the biplane and cause the development of two allmetal low-wing fighters, the ME 109 and the Spitfire, each earning a legendary place in history during the Battle of Britain. Common to all fighters of boundary conscious European nations, the Spit and 109 were both short-legged defensive machines. The ME 109 could out climb and outdive the Spit, enjoyed some altitude advantage, had longer range arament, but visibility from its small canopy was quite poor. The Spitfire with better visibility was slightly faster, having excellent handling qualities and outstanding high altitude maneuverability. Its excellent turning ability and its firepower proved decisive in the air war over Britain. [Music] Agility then as now meant responsive aircraft with superior acceleration and tight turning characteristics. Beyond the skies over England, however, long range strategic bombing missions deep into enemy territory were suffering dramatic losses for lack of escort protection the defensive fighter could not furnish. Three US fighters progressively solve this problem. Of the P-38, P-47, and P-51, it was the 51 with large internal fuel capacity that was able to accompany heavy bombers to the extreme limits of their operations. The Mustang combined the best climbing, turning, and diving characteristics of European fighters, had much improved visibility, and produced a kill ratio of 7:1. As the most versatile fighter of World War II, the P-51 added the criteria for endurance to future fighter development. In the Pacific, Japanese pilots were flying lightweight Zeros that displayed an exceptional combination of maneuverability and range, but could sustain little in the way of battle damage. Even though our own Navy fighters like the durable Hellcats and Corsairs were less maneuverable than the Zero, their ruggedness and heavier firepower provided the margin of victory. Grman Hellcats in particular, achieving a kill ratio of 19 to1. Postwar fighter development went into the doldrums much as it did after the First World War with one exception. The Russians recognizing the decisiveness of air superiority in World War II intensified their development of fighters. And less than 5 years later, the US experienced a growing technological know-how of its former World War II ally when F86s engaged superior Soviet built MIG 15s in Korea. After flying from Seoul to the Aloo, it was only a better trained and experienced combat pilot using improved tactics in a rugged sweptwing Saber that maintained a margin of air superiority over North Korea. Although air combat over Korea still used close-in weapons, guns and rockets, it was now jet powered, and the relatively tight turn of World War II was getting larger. The criteria for turning capability, range, and visibility that evolved from fighters past became even more critical in this conflict. By 1953, when the Korean War ended, the Soviets had already put their next MIG, the 17, into service and then methodically produced the MiGs 19 and 21, all in a 5-year period. And the US has faced all three of these highly maneuverable fighters in Vietnam. For the first time in the history of air combat, Vietnam saw the use of guided missiles as the primary air-to-air weaponry. US fighters using mid-range Sparrow missiles were able to destroy enemy aircraft beyond visual contact using a radar weapon system that detects, acquires, launches, and guides this missile to the target. When close-in combat was experienced, the infrared guided Sidewinder accounted for most MIGs destroyed by US fighters. US lead in this technology paid dividends in the early stages of air combat. But then the North Vietnamese reached parody by using ground controlled hit-and-run tactics. Only improved command and control and intensified air combat training regained US advantage. The F4 Phantom just barely held its own in this electronically dominated airspace because it is an interceptor used as a fighter, finding it difficult to compete with a fighter designed as a fighter. Holding our own has been a matter of complicated tactics, intensive training, and two able men offsetting hardware deficiencies. This is an expensive and time-consuming remedy and would be feutal if we found ourselves either without the time to accomplish it or up against an enemy with equal or superior skills coupled with better machines. [Music] Every fighter pilot from the very first gunslinger who flew a wood and wire crate at treetop level to today's manager of a very complicated weapon system knows that air combat is not just weapon against weapon. It is a matter of skill and judgment, courage and aggressiveness. It is knowing those things about his own machine that might kill him rather than the enemy. A knowing of weaknesses in the enemy's airplane to be exploited. And having a healthy respect for the enemy's capability. [Music] There is little way for the layman to experience the air combat environment. But one way to capture something of this violence is to sense visual relationships using motion picture cameras, installing them where the viewer can account for his own airplane, the terrain, the horizon and sky, and the enemy all at once. Flying like you plan to fight is the jargon of simulated combat. One man in an F8 against two in an F4. Crusader against Phantom. Standard Navy fighters. The imperative, find the other guy first. Having achieved initial firing position because of its better radar, the F4 gets first advantage. [Music] Taliho 9:00 low 6 miles. To counter the Phantom's advantage, the Crusader must execute a defensive turn. The F8 pilot meets the Phantom head on. [Music] Now all the action is outside the cockpit. Dog fighting is the order of things now, and both crews are concerned with exactly what Rickenbacher and Fritoven were concerned with over half a century ago. position, angle off, air speed, get the enemy on the defensive. The fighter pilot does not always have the luxury of deciding how and when he will meet the enemy. But once engaged, there is but one alternative. Destroy him before he destroys you. The classic dog fight involving two or more jet fighters is a brief fuel-consuming encounter at best and must reach its conclusion within several minutes. It is the engagement of last resort, the least desirable, most demanding way to fight for man and machine. Never underestimating his opponent, the fighter pilot must judge the maneuvering ability of his adversary during the first seconds of the engagement. From that point on, he must continuously and rapidly predict his opponent's strategy and be able to counter effectively. The Phantom and Crusader are conventional fighters, and in this violent arena of changing speed, altitude, and G forces, both experience less than optimum wing performance most of the time, only because their respective wings are fixed for best performance in a small band of the tactical envelope. Their different energy levels give each distinct advantages at different altitudes, and this reflects on the skill of the pilot and the performance of the airplane as well. keeping visual contact and never looking in his cockpit for one moment. He must also assess the effects of sun and clouds and include these in his own battle strategy. All this will occur during extreme and rapid altitude changes from the deck to 35,000 ft. And he will experience equally rapid and debilitating physical forces on his whole system from 0 to 7 G's. While undergoing these conditions, he must not think about flying his own machine, or where the horizon is, or whether he's right side up or upside down, or whether the machinery is working or not working, whether it's stalling or not stalling, his whole consciousness glued to the enemy's airplane. During an average 120 second fight, he may get two or perhaps three brief opportunities to destroy his opponent. And in these seconds, he will have to select the most effective weapon at his disposal, fitting range, speed, and angle off to the circumstance of the moment. In his total involvement, he must never forget that enough fuel must be preserved to get back to home base. If the battle has not been joined and fuel reserves dictate disengaging, the fighter could be destroyed in its escape. Running out of fuel is tantamount to a kill for the opponent. [Music] Today's air combat training involve two airplanes. Tomorrow it could be four or six. The goal is to teach the pilot every fighter tactic in the book. Never to consider being on the defensive to exploit and become one with his own machine. to exploit the weaknesses of the adversary and his machine. All this against a day when an enemy and whatever fighter he may put in the air can be met with confidence. Air superiority, a rapidly advancing technology available to everyone is a transient value, but maintaining it needs defining and redefining in terms of the enemy environment. Reviewing for a brief moment, this highly maneuverable sweptwing MIG 21 is an air superiority fighter better than any in our operational inventory. Since its initial design was laid down in the early 1950s as an uncluttered Mach 2 home defense day fighter, there has been a dramatic technical and political shift in Russian design philosophy. But the immediate Soviet aircraft threat comprises an advanced generation of fighters already in existence and the prototype development of several even newer types. Floger, a swingwing frontline tactical fighter, is operational. This is an aircraft operating at altitudes up to 50,000 ft at speeds of Mach 2.3. Also possessing maneuverability and a combat radius in excess of the F4 Phantom. Foxbat, a new extended performance fighter, is now operational and has been seen in an area of potential conflict. It is thought to have multiple air-to-air and long range air-to-surface missile capability at a speed of Mark III. More important, however, we currently have no fighter in our operational inventory that could consistently, if successfully, combat the Foxpat. Of the two, the Foxbat has substantially widened the combat spectrum, has amplified the need for air defense, and the absolute requirement to respond to more rapidly changing situations in a much enlarged envelope. In the meantime, a much newer problem faces even our most contemporary solution to containing the broad spectrum of Soviet air threats, and that's a generation of advanced tactical aircraft, which further expands the performance of known Soviet fighters and missiles. This expanding Soviet technology includes launching cruise missiles against US operations, not only from aerial platforms, but from highly mobile surface units as well. Nevertheless, the overall Soviet threat does not come as a surprise. It is a long-term product of determination and technological predictability. And while each element of the overall threat requires management, the largest responsibility for containing it lies in the realm of the fighter. Actual combat is the proving ground of last resort that tests the ability of fighting men and machines. A dynamic experience that isolates and emphasizes the need for improved aircraft that do not penalize either the air crew or the mission. So I think we do have shortcomings. I think the F8 uh for the state-of-the-art that it uh it put forth quite fine, but that was 15 years ago. We don't have that today. We need a new airplane to to cope with a new threat, ECM and non ECM environment. The threat has gone well beyond that. It's a multiplane attack with a bunch of missiles, uh very coordinated, a lot of ECM, a very sophisticated attack, and it takes a a tough system to handle that. Now, it's not a one-on-one situation. So I think the first thing that that we should look for in a fighter or in any airplane that we buy is a real meaningful range. And I think uh 5 600 miles doesn't stick in my throat a bit. The airplane should be able to fight 500 miles away from the carrier. We need a fighter that's got uh that's got endurance. It's got long legs. Part of an any ACM engagement is fuel. That's where your performance comes from. the more fuel you have, the more uh the more you can dump that out the tailpipe to give you thrust. And that's one of the elements to winning the fight. And so we plan our response to the threat, keeping in mind that the criteria for a successful fighter have never changed. The goal being to balance these against the technical capabilities of a potential enemy. the skill. We're going to change our style for a few moments to review those elements that evolution, experience, enemy, and environment prescribe as necessary to success in air combat if we are to emerge with any sense of confidence or security in these times. And so, taking some liberties, we're off to the beach. [Music] I love you. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] It's [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't know. [Music] Hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Woohoo! [Music] Oh, give me [Music] this Tom Cat by the book and the convenience of animated time has learned all the qualifications for a successful fighter that almost 60 years of fighter development has taken to achieve. His all-metal counterpart is the Grumman F-14, the Navy's new generation, no trade-off, no compromise air superiority fighter designed against exacting mission requirements. It draws the past, the present, and the near future together in a single combat machine. [Music] The F-14, combining exceptional power in a variable sweep wing, has the energy and maneuverability vital to controlling fighter engagements. Tomcat's ability to automatically adjust its wing to its speed allows for unmatched agility in close turning combat. The initial impression is that a plane that size uh just can't turn like it does. Uh we for years have been watching the threat type aircraft assimulation or the threat itself from over our shoulder because they can outturn uh any fighter we've had in in Vietnam, F8s and F4s. So here we give a fighter the capability to turn when you put that in combination with the vertical capability of the aircraft. uh you always shake in your head say you know it's just not possible for an airplane to turn like this. [Music] Undoubtedly uh the swing wing has given the F-14 an almost unique capability uh in fighter aircraft. the uh with the wing forward, you have a straight wing airplane that uh at real slow speeds, I'm really talking less than 200 knots, uh is a fantastic turning aircraft. It compares uh probably compares favorably with a T28 with a with a wing aft. The airplane uh has surprised all of us with the with the turn capability it has. If you look at it very simply, however, it's a delta- wing airplane with a wing at at 68° and delta wing airplanes are known turners. [Applause] Tomcat's all internal fuel capacity accounts for some of its size, gives it extended range and endurance, lets it take the fight to the enemy, and once engaged has the combat fuel needed to win. The F-14 is its own tanker. It carries a bag of fuel and in most cases is not required for tanking on the typical mission to get you way out there and get your way back. For instance, this airplane can leap off from the carrier with a fighter load, four missiles, sparrows, full gun, a couple of side winders, full internal fuel, no tanks, run out 350 mi, engage for 2 minutes at max AB, hustle back the ship, hold overhead for 20 minutes, and land with 2,000 lb of fuel. That's without tanking and no external tanks. Uh this is oh at least twice the distance as most of us most of us are used to as far as a range for a combat situation in a fighter role off the carrier. The detection range of its OG 9 weapon system is three times that of any in existence allowing much earlier detection initial positioning first firing and maneuvering for next advantage. The real capability that the F-14 has is multiple track of targets and multiple launch simultaneous launch at several different targets. If you look at the way the Russians run inter run their uh their tactics, run their exercises, it's fairly obvious you're going to be faced with a number of different targets. This system can detect targets at ranges in excess of of twice the range that an F4 could do it and can track multiple targets and shoot at those guys at really long ranges. It's really the only I feel viable weapon system that to counter the Russian threat. Taking advantage of this versatile system, the Tomcat employs both number and variety of weapons from Phoenix missile to Vulcan cannon. Can punch hard at extreme ranges, close in, and anywhere between. The F-14 has some tremendous advantages over past fighters from a backseaters point of view. In the ACM mode, you can actually see out of this airplane. Visibility is is unrestricted or nearly unrestricted in all quadrants. You can twist in your seat enough to see right between the vertical tails. It's a tremendous asset in a dog fight situation. Controllability is this fighter's trademark at the maneuvering extremes of air combat to its behavior around the ship. An honest safety machine throughout its tactical envelope. I think the one of the big advantages that the swing wing obviously is going to give us is the shipboard roll. We've got an airplane that that's going going to come aboard ship at less than 120 knots with the uh design specifications on the on the landing gear as far as withstanding high sink rates. Uh we've got an airplane that should I say should have a very impressive uh safety record. When Tomcat is based ashore, its stall-like qualities allow it to land in 1,800 ft and get airborne again in 900 ft, completing the entire evolution in less than 3,000 ft. All criteria considered, the exceptionally agile twoman swingwing Tomcat with its versatile weapon system blends total force flexibility in all roles. [Music] Since there are no points for second place in air combat, the F-14 is by design a criteria conscious combination of hardware and performance that allows us to match wits with any situation an enemy might create now or in the near future. The F-14 evolved from a requirement to satisfy a multi-m missission air superiority fighter role while stressing high performance and close-in combat maneuvering capability. The F-14 can take the fight to the enemy and as a dog fighter can outperform any threat airplane flying today or postulated for years to come. A careful blend of superb performance, flexible weapons loading, and combat endurance. This new generation fighter was designed for reliability and ease of employment. Though complex, it is a weapon system with a balanced combat capability, superior to the threat as we see it now, yet designed to absorb as much future technology as can be applied to threats we can reasonably predict. In reality, a fighting system with the potential to go further than our existing plans for it. Responsiveness is what we've been talking about in the fighter all along, about this fighter in particular, for it gives the average fighter pilot a better than average chance to defeat the enemy in air combat. The F-14, perhaps the first true multi-m missission by design fighter, represents a substantial improvement in the man machine performance relationship that gives us the initial advantage and allows us to keep it. Translating requirements and criteria into hardware has seen the oddly development of Tomcat. in the overall a low-risk program appropriate to needs we can honestly identify carefully match the broadscope confrontation. More importantly, it carries a twoman crew because the automation required for a one-man crew would restrict its growth, its flexibility, its safety, and in the process, its mission performance. We don't have a corner on technology and we can be sure that any adversary will use every advantage he might have to outgun us today. The F-14 is what it is because it reflects all the criteria essential to but never achieved before in any single fighter. It does not compromise one performance area for another and its versatility will provide us with a means to respond for years to come. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]