F14

[edit] Armament
The Tomcat was originally designed to combat both highly maneuverable aircraft and the Soviet cruise missile/bomber threat. As a result, the aircraft was designed to act effectively in every aspect of air combat. For weaponry, the Tomcat was mainly designed as a platform for the formidable AIM-54 Phoenix, but unlike the stillborn F-111B it could also engage medium and short range threats. As such, the F-14 was a full air superiority fighter and not only a long range interceptor. It had the standard US gun, the M61 Vulcan, with 676 rounds and 4,000 or 6,000 RPM selectable (although the latter is rarely used due to jamming and overheating issues). Over 6,700 kg of stores could be carried for combat missions in several hard points under the belly and on wing-mounted hardpoints. Commonly, this meant a maximum of two - four Phoenixes or Sparrows on the belly stations, two Phoenixes/Sparrows on the wing hardpoints, and two Sidewinders on the wing hardpoints. On occasion, four AIM-7 Sparrows (on the belly) and four AIM-9 Sidewinders (on the wingmounts) were carried, similar to the F-4 and F-15.

The maximum load of six Phoenix missiles was never used operationally. Although early testing proved it was possible, there was never a threat requirement to engage six hostile targets simultaneously and the load was too heavy to recover aboard an aircraft carrier. The Phoenix missile have been used twice in combat situations with the US Navy, both over Iraq in 1999,[22][23][24] but the missiles didn't score any kills. It has been claimed[by whom?] that Iranian F-14s did so but, as with many of the activities of the Iranian Air Force, this has not been reliably confirmed.[citation needed]

During the height of Cold War operations in the late 1970s and 1980s, the typical weapon loadout on carrier-deployed F-14s was rarely more than one AIM-54 Phoenix, normally augmented by two AIM-9 Sidewinders, two AIM-7 Sparrow IIIs, a full loadout of 20 mm ammunition for the M61 cannon and two drop tanks.