The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a twin-engine, variable sweep wings capable of supersonic flight. The aircraft is crewed by a Pilot and a Radar Intercept Officer who share the tasks of navigation, target acquisition, ECM and weapons usage. The Tomcat was operated by the United States Navy and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force only. The name “Tomcat” is said to come from the call-sign used by Vice Admiral Thomas Connolly which conformed to the USN tradition of giving Grumman aircraft feline names.
Since the early 1970s the Soviet Union had been sending MiG-25 over flights of Iran who was unable to stop this using their F-4s. In January 1974 Iran ordered 30 F-14s with another 50 in June 1974. In January 1976 the first two aircraft arrived with 10 more by May 1977 along with Phoenix missiles which put an end to Soviet over flights. F-14A 160339/3-6041 was based with the 82nd TFS, Khatami AB in 2003. This air frame was used to test the feasibility of the R-27 and R-73 missiles.