One of the most iconic US naval fighter jets of the Cold War era, the two-seater F-14A Tomcat was developed as the US Navy's fleet-defense fighter jet to protect their carrier groups over vast swathes of ocean against Soviet bombers carrying anti-ship missiles. Developed after the US Navy's failed F-111B program, the F-14A was first deployed in 1974 wielding the advanced AN/AWG-9 radar and up to eight missiles, including the iconic Phoenix missile, to target and destroy enemy targets from extremely long ranges. Although it introduced a host of new capabilities, the F-14A suffered from its TF30 engines, which were subject to frequent failures, and other issues with the aircraft's flight characteristics that caused regular accidents.

Introduced in Update "Danger Zone", the F-14A was the first fourth-generation fighter to appear in the game, and the first to carry a new type of air-to-air missile with an active radar-homing seeker — the AIM-54 Phoenix. An extensive arsenal of suspended weapons, combined with excellent flight characteristics and the powerful AN/AWG-9 radar, make the F-14 one of the best aircraft for achieving air superiority. Its only drawback is relatively low survivability, even by the standards of top-of-the-line aircraft; in particular, the F-14’s extremely powerful engines can make it more difficult to successfully decoy enemy missiles using flares, even without afterburner activated.