F-14 Tomcat

By early 2006 only 22 F-14 Tomcats remained in service, aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. These last two F-14 squadrons returned from theis last deployment on 10 March 2006. VF-213 Blacklions transition to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in April 2006, and the VF-31 Tomcatters give up their Tomcats in September 2006.
Fighter Squadron (VF) 31 returned home to Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana on Oct. 31, 2004, from a five-month Western Pacific deployment with the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). As part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14, the squadron became the last to fly F-14 Tomcats over the skies of the Pacific Fleet.
Besides the United States, Iran is the only other country that deploys the F-14 Tomcat, and sales of military equipment to Iran is prohibited. By the end of 2006, Iran will be the only country operating the F-14. US Customs have made multiple arrests in conspiracies to transship military parts to Iran. One seuzure in 2001 involved 16 pallets containing military aircraft parts, missile parts, and other military items, including a crate containing an entire canopy to an F-14 Tomcat Fighter.
Manufactured by Grumman Aircraft Corporation, the F-14 employs variable geometry wings to optimize aircraft performance throughout the flight envelope. The F-14 swing-wing could be manually controlled by the pilot or shifted automatically according to the plane's speed. It moved forward to allow the plane to land on tiny aircraft carrier decks at relatively low speeds and backward as the plane dashed out to intercept Soviet bombers. The multiple tasks of navigation, target acquisition, electronic counter measures (ECM), and weapons firing are divided between the pilot and the radar intercept officer (RIO).