Key Points and Summary – The F-111B was the Navy’s carrier variant of the TFX concept, aiming to share a common airframe with the Air Force’s F-111.
-On paper it offered advanced avionics, variable-geometry wings, and long-range weapons. At sea it proved too heavy and too sluggish, undercutting the speed and maneuverability naval aviators needed for carrier ops and dogfights.
F-111B. Image Credit: U.S. Military.
-Development troubles and shifting priorities sealed its fate, while Grumman’s F-14 Tomcat—lighter, faster, and better balanced—took the mission with the long-range radar/missile capability intact.
-Cancelled though it was, the F-111B informed the Tomcat’s design and stands as a vivid lesson in the risks of one-airframe-fits-all strategy.
F-111B vs. F-14 Tomcat
For every aircraft that successfully blasts into the sky in support of the United States and Allied militaries, there are more fighters, bombers, drones, and surveillance planes that never cross the threshold into full operational status. In some cases, industry competitors lament a crushing loss, and some retrospectively question the wisdom of design decisions.
For example, there was never a US Navy carrier-launched variant of the F-22. Why not? Certainly, the military considered the idea. What about Northrop’s Y-23 offering, which lost out to Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor?
The X-47B is perhaps an even greater mystery, as it made history last decade as the first drone to take off autonomously from a carrier. Following its historic success as a breakthrough platform, the promising, first-of-its-kind Northrop X-47B stealthy aerial refueler seemed to vanish into a mist of uncertainty. There was never an apparent reason given for its disappearance, apart from possible budget concerns and the emergence of the soon-to-be-operational MQ-25 Stingray carrier-launched refueler.
F-111B
Beneath the headlines and the visible threshold of these high-profile programs, there was an experimental carrier-launched follow-on to the US Navy’s 1960s and beyond F-4 Phantom II.
During the 1960s, the F-111B was developed by General Dynamics and Grumman in support of the US Air Force’s Joint Tactical Fighter Experimental program.
The concept was to engineer a common fighter capable of performing a range of different missions.
The F-111B was designed and produced with forward-leaning technologies for its time, including variable-geometry wings, afterburning turbofan engines, and long-range weapons and radar.
Ultimately, however, the F-111B was never produced, unlike the successful US Air Force F-111 Aardvark, for several reasons. What could have been a Navy variant of the Aardvark ultimately dissolved into a developmental haze, leading to its cancellation. The reason for the cancellation, however, is clear and self-evident, as it can be explained in a simple word: speed.
The F-111B never came to exist because it was outperformed by the lighter, faster, and eventually iconic F-14 Tomcat. The F-111B experienced developmental problems and failed to mature into a platform capable of sufficient dogfighting, so the F-14 replaced it as part of a full production program.
Some F-111Bs were used for training before the program was entirely canceled. Some argue it would be shortsighted to call the platform useless or irrelevant. Even if a program is canceled, its design, construction, and integration likely influenced, inspired, and helped the development of platforms that evolved into superior systems, such as the F-14 Tomcat.
F-14D Tomcat Fighter NSJ Original Image. Taken by Dr. Brent M. Eastwood.
F-14D Tomcat at Smithsonian In Washington DC. Image by Brent M. Eastwood/National Security Journal.
The Navy likely more fully recognized the importance of speed and dogfighting as a result of discovering limitations with the F-111B. Therefore, the nearly unparalleled speed and agility of the F-14, compared to other aircraft of its time, seems to have, in some measure, resulted from discoveries made while building the F-111B.
Furthermore, the 1970s, 80s, and 90s were times when the ability to dogfight was at an all-time high. Prior to the arrival of the F-35’s long-range sensing, targeting, and fusion capabilities, close-in air combat was regarded as the ultimate priority for achieving air supremacy.
While dogfighting remains important today, the range, fidelity, and precision of fighter jet sensors and weapons are making dogfighting less relevant.
The F-111B also contributed to the external configuration of the Tomcat. The F-14 Tomcat flew with a swing-wing configuration similar to the F-111B.
It was the F-111B’s inability to dogfight successfully that likely contributed to why the F-14 became known as the world’s best dogfighting air-to-air Naval fighter for many years.
Why the F-14 Tomcat Wins (F-111B Was Not a Total Fail)
It is often the case that cancelled programs wind up outliving themselves to inform, assist, help, and inspire very successful future developments, so it would not be surprising if the longer-range radar, wing configuration, and weapons delivery technologies initially woven into the F-111B proved critical to the development of the F-14.
About the Author: Kris Osborn, Warrior Maven President
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
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