picture 185756

Originally designed as a highly manoeuvrable fighter-interceptor, adapted for the deployment of long-range AIM-54 Phoenix missiles (inset, lower right corner), the F-14 Tomcat was left without its primary opposition by the end of the Cold War. Correspondingly, during the early 1990s a small group of enthusiastic crews worked hard to adapt it for the deployment of laser-guided bombs. The modifications were ready by 1995, but VF-41 deployed without any of the LANTIRN targeting pods. Correspondingly, when the unit flew the first combat sorties in which GBU-16 laser-guided bombs were dropped from its F-14As, it depended on F/A-18s to mark targets. The first ‘Bomcat’ to release a pair of GBU-16s (shown inset centre) was this one, Modex AJ100, AerNo 161607. What is less well-known is that VF-41’s F-14As and VF-102s F-14Bs released a number of ADM-141 TALD decoys (inset, lower left corner) – to further disturb the work of the Serbian air defences. Like most of VF-41’s Tomcats, this jet was painted in light ghost gray (FS36375) overall, with large anti-glare panels and fin-tips in in flat black. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)