Variable-sweep wings and the long-range Phoenix missile made the Tomcat a powerful fleet-defense interceptor with excellent low-speed carrier handling. Its crew of two combined a pilot with a radar intercept officer, and later precision-strike upgrades extended the aircraft from Cold War interception into reconnaissance and attack missions.
INTERACTIVE MODEL LOADS WHEN NEARBY
2016 / ModernAirframe B
F-35A Lightning II
Lockheed Martin · Conventional multirole fighter
HISTORICAL FIELD NOTE
The conventional-runway F-35A combines low-observable shaping, sensor fusion, and internal weapons carriage with the lightest airframe and largest internal fuel load of the three F-35 variants. It entered U.S. Air Force operational service in 2016 and is designed for both air-to-air and precision-strike missions.
PERFORMANCE
SPECIFICATION BREAKDOWN
METRICF-14A TomcatF-35A Lightning II
Top speed
Mach 2.34REFERENCE VALUE
Mach 1.6REFERENCE VALUE
Ceiling
53,000 ftREFERENCE VALUE
50,000 ftREFERENCE VALUE
Range
1,840 miREFERENCE VALUE
1,200+ nmiAPPROXIMATE / PUBLISHED
Archive milestone
Service entry · 1974REFERENCE VALUE
Service entry · 2016REFERENCE VALUE
Nation
United StatesDESCRIPTIVE VALUE
United StatesDESCRIPTIVE VALUE
Primary role
Fleet defenseDESCRIPTIVE VALUE
Conventional multirole fighterDESCRIPTIVE VALUE
Values are concise archive references and can vary by variant, payload, configuration, altitude, operating conditions, and source. Range may describe different published measures where a directly comparable figure is unavailable.
