No more Tomcats at AMARC

[mustangdriver]

Dear Sir

Thank you for your e-mail to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and
Regeneration Group (309 AMARG) regarding the status of the
F-14 "Tomcat" fighters here at the Group facility.

I regret having to inform you that there are currently no F-14s remaining
here at 309 AMARG anymore with exception of AN1K0056 which is being
held by the National Museum of Naval Aviation until the period for enquiries
on contracting the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67 for a museum institution has
expired by January 22, 2010 since said unit has been requested to be loaned to the
winning contractor.

All Navy F-14’s were slated for demilitarization and ultimately disposal in late
October 2009. Demilitarization involves removal of hazardous materials and
military equipment by 309 AMARG (578th Storage and Disposal Squadron)
personnel. When this process has been completed, the aircraft are removed
to a Navy contractor where they are shredded into metal scrap. Scrap can
then be smelted and recycled. As the respective contractors for the remaining
Navy F-14’s companies Titan Works Grays, HVF LLC and L3 Communications have been
awarded the contract for processing the final lot of remaining F-14-airframes which had
been fulfilled by the 4th quarter of FY09.

You may refer to the PIMA Air & Space Museum which is located close to the premises
of the AMARG facility. An F-14 Tomcat has been placed as an exhibition piece there for
visitors to enjoy. For any arrangements you may want to make for a visit to AMARG
please visit www.pimaair.org or call (520) 574-0462.


Sincerely – SrA Tim Vaughan
GS-11- Public Affairs Officer
355 Contracting Squadron
309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309 AMARG)
http://www.dm.af.mil/units/amarc.asp

[Pat Carry]

Interesting stuff Chris. It sure didn't take them long to get rid of the fleet of Tomcats. Fortunately there are many preserved now in museums.

[ZRX61]

Any ideas where all the spare tires ended up? They fit F7F Tigercats...

[Garth]

Interesting stuff Chris. It sure didn't take them long to get rid of the fleet of Tomcats. Fortunately there are many preserved now in museums.

But sadly, not enough. At some point there'll be a couple supercarriers set up as museum ships. Not as many as there are groups who are trying to get one, but between Quonset (Saratoga), Seattle (Ranger), Wilmington NC (Kitty Hawk), Boston/somewhere (Kennedy - the most likely to be successfully placed) and the groups that will vie over Enterprise (now scheduled to be defueled and inactivated at Newport News rather than Puget Sound ... there's a reasonable chance she'll be set up as a museum either under the auspices of NN or NS Norfolk just like Nautilus is up in Groton) there'll be a need for Tomcats to display on their decks.

I know there are other Tomcats languishing out there in various states of non-display preservation. But the late-service ones at AMARG were basically display-ready requiring basic demil and transportation to a display location. Shame that they couldn't have held onto 5-10 of them.

--Garth

[Holedigger]

I imagine that anything and everything related to the 14 has been red-flagged for "disposal" so Iran can't get ahold of ANY parts, no matter how insignificant.

[Pat Carry]

Interesting stuff Chris. It sure didn't take them long to get rid of the fleet of Tomcats. Fortunately there are many preserved now in museums.

But sadly, not enough. At some point there'll be a couple supercarriers set up as museum ships. Not as many as there are groups who are trying to get one, but between Quonset (Saratoga), Seattle (Ranger), Wilmington NC (Kitty Hawk), Boston/somewhere (Kennedy - the most likely to be successfully placed) and the groups that will vie over Enterprise (now scheduled to be defueled and inactivated at Newport News rather than Puget Sound ... there's a reasonable chance she'll be set up as a museum either under the auspices of NN or NS Norfolk just like Nautilus is up in Groton) there'll be a need for Tomcats to display on their decks.

I know there are other Tomcats languishing out there in various states of non-display preservation. But the late-service ones at AMARG were basically display-ready requiring basic demil and transportation to a display location. Shame that they couldn't have held onto 5-10 of them.

--Garth

Very good points Garth. I never thought about that. Maybe when that time comes the navy will have to pull F-14's on display at smaller museums and give them to the carrier museums.

[Garth]

I imagine that anything and everything related to the 14 has been red-flagged for "disposal" so Iran can't get ahold of ANY parts, no matter how insignificant.

Which is pretty silly to think about. The Alicats are limited-capability white elephants in a national prestige program where the Iranian PTB have consistently ignored the concept of "opportunity costs".

If I were running things here in the US I'd be actively pushing Tomcat parts INTO the black market, at ridiculous levels of markup of course, so that the Iranians would pour out their treasury in trying to lay hands on them.

Of course, there may be something even MORE sinister at work here. Lets think about the possibility that the Iranians might actually rise up and overthrow the Ayatollah's and Ahmanutjob (yes, HUGE hypothetical there ...). Suddenly there's a pro-West, pro-US regime in place, one that really really likes US hardware. No Tomcats out at AMARG puts them in the position of having to either maintain their extremely expensive indigenous support capability or ... buy NEW hardware from companies like, say, Boeing and Lockheed.

[richkolasa]

Makes me sick...

Rich

[Garth]

Very good points Garth. I never thought about that. Maybe when that time comes the navy will have to pull F-14's on display at smaller museums and give them to the carrier museums.

I was thinking about this. If I were, say, in charge of pulling together aircraft for display on a hypothetical museum based on the USS Enterprise, I'm actually going to want at least THREE Tomcats. Especially since I'm going to have lots of space to display them. One F-14A in VF-2 colors from their initial deployment fitted as for the CAP missions over South Vietnam (Sparrows and 'Winders only, iirc), one F-14A in VF-1 colors from the same timeframe with the Phoenix/Sparrow/Sidewinder loadout (I say VF-1 here because an F-14 in that scheme carrying Phoenix's just looks completely bada**), and an F-14A in a variety of schemes (VF-14, VF-41, VF-211) from Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom with LANTIRN and bombs. Or an F-14B from an earlier deployment (VF-103 perhaps - EVERYONE likes a Tomcat with the skull and crossbones on the tail, right?) in the same Bombcat configuration.

[N3Njeff]

Nope, a smaller museum with a F-14 will get a letter after they busted their ass to pour a concrete slab and display area to support it that they no longer will have a F-14, that its going to another museum.

Much like the Great SR-71 recall.

[Enemy Ace]

It's political. Cheney, among others had a blue vein throbber to destroy the Tomcats.
Ain't nothing like replacing an airplane with an inferior system.
But then Navy air is rapidly becoming a joke anyway IMHO.

[Pat Carry]

Nope, a smaller museum with a F-14 will get a letter after they busted their ass to pour a concrete slab and display area to support it that they no longer will have a F-14, that its going to another museum.

Much like the Great SR-71 recall.

So true!

[P51Mstg]

I agree with Rich..... Pass the barfbags........

I've been to AMARC in the past and I can say that there is enough room for a few dozen F-14s to have been left there and nobody would have even noticed them........

Thats a shame.... I need to pull the pics of a bunch of them out there in rows....

Mark H

[mustangdriver]

Makes me sick...

Rich

You nailed it man

[Pat Carry]

It's political. Cheney, among others had a blue vein throbber to destroy the Tomcats.
Ain't nothing like replacing an airplane with an inferior system.
But then Navy air is rapidly becoming a joke anyway IMHO.

There's the problem right there!