Quote:
Originally Posted by Heel n Toe
It wasn't a fighter/bomber and it was never meant to be capable of dogfighting. Closer to being just a supersonic bomber.
And even at Mach 2.5, it couldn't effectively "flee" from (outrun) air to air missiles.
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Originally Bobby McNamara wanted the Air Force and Navy to share an airframe and they would be interceptors/bombers. After some fighting the Navy said no way it was happening and Grumman (the contractor for the Navy version of the F111) submitted the F14 to replace it. The Air Force used it as a tactical bomber, electronic warfare and SEAD. At low level and high speed n(600kts) it didn't worry much about surface to air missiles and back in the day look down/shoot down Soviet air to air missiles were not yet developed properly.