Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

Ok, I’ll throw my .02 in specifically referencing the F-15A/C and focusing primarily on air-to-air combat. 3 tours flying that active duty with another 11 years in the ANG. Never flew the F-14 but fought against it.

When you speak of F-14, it’s important to specify F-14A versus F-14B/D. Two very different fighter aircraft.

F-14A: older AWG-9 radar, very limited usefulness in look down, especially over terrain, TF-30 engines that required significant attention at high altitude and high AOA, very outdated avionics compared with the F-15C.

F-14B: much better GE engines and eventually upgraded with better avionics though still saddled with the old AWG-9.

F-14D: GE engines, better avionics and an APG-71 radar vastly superior to the AWG-9.

Generally speaking, I would characterize the F-15 as much more user friendly. It was designed from the outset to be employed by a single pilot. The interface between pilot and weapons systems/avionics is far superior to the two crew member set up in the F-14. The engines are not the biggest/best on the block any longer, but they are robust and can be operated relatively care-free in any manner necessary throughout the entire flight envelope without concern. Considering the radar, engine and avionics disadvantages across the board in the F-14A, it’s really not worth comparing those with the F-15. F-14 B/D are more worthy of comparison.

BVR:
The F-14 wins the longest stick award with the AIM-54 missile, at least on paper. In reality, the AWG-9/AIM-54 combination was optimized for over water, non-maneuvering engagements. Under any other circumstances, i.e. over terrain against aware F-15s, the chances of successfully using those missiles drops dramatically. F-14D would probably be a better match with the APG-71, however, the AIM-54 (while very capable) was still at least a generation behind the AIM-120 AMRAAM.

Considering no operational F-14 ever gained the capability to employ AIM-120 AMRAAMs, I would have to give the BVR edge to the F-15.

WVR:
In a visual fight, an F-14A would quickly lose the advantage due to lack of engine power. One drawback of all F-14 aircraft is the auto wing-sweep. As the aircraft slows and loses energy, the wings sweep forward giving a visual indication of its airspeed and energy state which can be exploited, especially by a fighter with superior thrust and acceleration capability like the F-15.

F-14B/D would be a more challenging adversary due to the improved engines. I would say they would be closer to equal aircraft in terms of thrust to weight and maneuverability. However, the F-15 would still be able to offset that with a weapons advantage. All current F-15 are able to employ AIM-9X with helmet mounted sight, allowing significantly higher off-boresite weapons employment that the AIM-9M carried by the F-14.

So, overall: If you took two F-14D crews and two F-15C pilots of equal skill/training, gave them a full up weapons load with the same ID criteria/ROE and started them 100 miles apart with the mission to shoot each other down – barring any major errors on the part of the Eagle drivers, by the end of the engagement, both F-14s would most likely be destroyed.