Surface-Launched Version Of The Tomcat’s AIM-54 Phoenix Missile Nearly Armed Cold War Carriers

The U.S. Navy’s Cold War-era AIM-54 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missile, the primary fleet air defense armament of its F-14 Tomcat interceptors for four decades, was also adapted for surface launch from warships. The little-known Sea Phoenix project also involved installing the F-14’s fire-control radar on a ship and progressed as far as missile test launches.

The Sea Phoenix concept had emerged by the mid-1970s and was proposed as an alternative or a replacement for the early versions of the Sea Sparrow, which was another adaptation of an air-to-air missile for fleet defense. At that time, the air-launched AIM-54 was already in frontline use on the Navy’s F-14 fighters, coupled with the powerful AN/AWG-9 pulse-Doppler fire-control radar system as part of a sophisticated defense, primarily intended to defeat Soviet naval cruise missiles, and the long-range aircraft that carried them.

U.S. Navy

The massive AIM-54A Phoenix on a ground handling trolley.




The

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