PUBLISHED on August 17, 2025, 11:27 AM EDT – Key Points and Summary: While “Top Gun: Maverick” saw the F-14 Tomcat emerge victorious, a real-world fight against Russia’s Su-57 “Felon” would likely end differently.
-The Su-57’s advanced stealth and “see-first, shoot-first” capabilities would give it a decisive advantage over the older, non-stealthy F-14.
-Despite the Tomcat’s superior top speed and proven combat record, the Su-57’s technological edge in a beyond-visual-range engagement would be too much to overcome.
-In reality, unless the F-14 pilot got extremely lucky, the 5th-generation Felon would win.
“Top Gun: Maverick” vs. Reality — Who Would REALLY Win In a Fight Between the F-14 and the Su-57?
The climactic battle scene in the 2022 cinematic blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick features not just an epic dogfight, but indeed an intergenerational clash between 4th-generation fighter jets and 5th-generation stealth fighters.
To be more specific, the titular character, US Navy CAPT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and LT Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), using a stolen Grumman F-14 Tomcat (a clear homage to the first film in the series) get into a clash with not one but two Sukhoi Su-57s (NATO reporting name “Felon”).
SPOILER ALERT: Surprise, surprise: Maverick, Rooster, and the venerable ol’ Tomcat manage to defeat the two Felons.
Hey, this is a Hollywood action flick after all, and it would be a major Debbie Downer for audiences if the good guys didn’t win. But Hollywood hokum aside, who would **really** win in the unlikely event that the American-made F-14 and the Russian-made Su-57 were to ever fight each other?
A QUICK ASIDE
Before we get into the crux of the hypothetical head-to-head matchup, a wee-bitty FYI is in order here. Though not explicitly stated in the film, it’s pretty obvious that the unnamed Middle Eastern adversary is Iran.
After all, in real life, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF; Nirvi-ye Hevayi-ye Artesh-e Jimhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran) is indeed the only military entity still employing the F-14 for official duty.
However, the IRIAF certainly does *not* have the Su-57. The only two nations using the Russian-made stealth plane are (1) the Russian Federation itself and (2) Algeria. Iran is outright allied with Russia and strengthening its diplomatic ties with Algeria, hence the extreme unlikelihood of a Tomcat vs. Felon fight ever becoming a reality.
That said, let’s get on with our theoretical showdown.
SUKHOI SU-57 FELON ADVANTAGES
The most obvious advantage of the Russian warbird is its true stealth capability. The F-14 was a true 4th-generation fighter (as opposed to a 4.5-generation fighter, which, though not a true stealth fighter, at least has stealthier characteristics) that was not designed with stealth in mind.
Its 62-foot 9 inch fuselage length, 64-foot 1.5 inch wingspan, 16-foot height, and ten external hardpoints give it a huge radar cross section (RCS) that a Su-57 driver would easily be able to pick up from beyond visual range (BVR). Remember, a major reason that the F-14 is able to win in the movie is that Maverick and Rooster employ deception, fooling the Su-57 pilots into thinking that friendlies are flying the Tomcat until the Felons get within range of the Tomcat’s 20mm M61A1 Vulcan gun. As Maverick himself concedes at the beginning of the dogfight scene, “If they knew who we were, we’d be dead already.”
Another advantage of the Su-57 is its relatively new presence on the scene, with manufacturing beginning in 2019, making it less vulnerable to wear & tear and the shortage of spare parts.
By contrast, the last F-14 airframe was built in July 1992. Moreover, the still-operational Tomcats in the hands of the IRIAF are even older than that, having been acquired during the mid-1970s when the Shah was still in power and Iran was still a US ally.
The Felon can also fly farther and higher than the Tomcat: a respective combat range of 670 nautical miles and service ceiling of 66,000 feet for the former versus 503 nautical miles and 53,000 feet for the latter.
GRUMMAN F-14 TOMCAT ADVANTAGES
In spite of its age, the Tomcat is still the faster of the two warbirds, with a max airspeed of Mach 2.34, leaving the Felon in the dust at Mach 2.0, As Maverick and LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)—yes, Rooster is Goose’s son—famously said in the first film in the series, “I feel the need for speed.”
The F-14 is also the more battle-proven of the two platforms, especially in air-to-air combat. The Su-57 has thus far only been “blooded” in air-to-ground combat, as the Ukrainian Air Force’s F-16s and MiG-29s have not yet risen up to the challenge of the Russian Felons in battle. Meanwhile, the Tomcat has an extremely impressive 135-to-4 aerial kill ratio. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt, as the last recorded instance of an F-14 Tomcat engaging in air-to-air combat was way back during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, AKA Operation Desert Storm.
AND THE WINNER IS…?
My patriotic and sentimental love for the F-14 notwithstanding, I would have to give the edge to the Su-57.
Its combination of relative radar invisibility, see-first-shoot-first capability, and lower likelihood of breaking down due to sheer age would be too much for the older plane to overcome in a one-on-one matchup, unless the latter were to get extremely lucky.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU).
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