page_title: LANTIRN
section_title: LANTIRN and the F-14 Tomcat
hierarchical_section_title: LANTIRN / LANTIRN and the F-14 Tomcat
caption_attribution_description: This a cropped version focusing on the LANTIRN pod. A US Navy (USN) F-14D Tomcat, Fighter Squadron 213 (VF-213), Blacklions, Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, Virginia (VA), banks with its tailhook lowered in preparation for landing after conducting a mission over the Mediterranean Sea. The Tomcat is equipped with an AAQ-14 LANTIRN (Low-Altitude Navigation and Targeting InfraRed for Night) pod on the pylon. The VF-213 is assigned to Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8), are currently embarked aboard the Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71).
context_page_description: Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night, or LANTIRN, is a combined navigation and targeting pod system for use on the United States Air Force fighter aircraft — the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. LANTIRN significantly increases the combat effectiveness of these aircraft, allowing them to fly at low altitudes, at night and under-the-weather to attack ground targets with a variety of precision-guided weapons.
context_section_description: Until the early 1990s, the F-14 Tomcat didn't have clearance to drop bombs even though all Tomcats were built with a Stores Management System (SMS) that included air-to-ground options as well as rudimentary software in the AWG-9. Early flight clearance work to clear the aircraft for air-to-ground were suspended due to development delays with the F-14 and it being shifted away from the air to ground mission. At the time, the Tomcat was so expensive (and lacked proper defensive electronic countermeasures (DECM) and radar homing and warning (RHAW) for overland operations) that the Navy did not want to risk it in the air-to-ground role. However, the TARPS mission had proven the Tomcat was survivable overland and upgrades to the Tomcat's DECM, expendables and RHAW gear were developed to increase its survivability. With the end of the Cold War and de-emphasis on the Fleet Air Defense mission, NAVAIR had renewed flight clearance work before Desert Storm so the F-14 could carry gravity bombs as well as laser-guided bombs if the target was lased by another jet (first Tomcat LGB drop in combat was made by VF-41 in 1995 during operations over Bosnia with an A-6 Intruder providing the requisite target illumination). Meanwhile, the decision had been made by Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) to retire the A-6 altogether and allow the F-14 Block 1 Strike variant to take over as the precision strike platform for the air wing. However, the $1.6B Block 1 Strike program was canceled in budgetary cuts by 1994 with only enough funding to integrate the JDAM, which was years away. In late 1994, an unsolicited proposal from Martin Marietta was initiated to demonstrate how a USAF LANTIRN targeting pod could be rapidly integrated onto the Tomcat. This effort was done under the auspices of Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic Fleet (COMNAVAIRLANT) using a fleet aircraft to integrate the digital 1553-based pod on an analog F-14B. In March 1995 a VF-103 fleet aircraft successfully dropped the first laser-guided training rounds (LGTR) and quickly laser-guided bombs (LGB). Due to the early success and interest from Fleet Commanders, NAVAIR began to procure pods and control units for deployment, resulting in VF-103 receiving the first LANTIRN pod June 14, 1996 in time for its upcoming deployment.
  The basic LANTIRN was modified into LANTIRN Targeting System (LTS), the navigation pod was removed from the two-pod system and the targeting pod was improved for Tomcat use. The LTS featured a Global Positioning System and inertial measurement unit that provided the pod line-of-sight cueing and weapon release ballistics and eliminated the need for external cumbersome and time-consuming boresight equipment.
  Unlike the early versions, the LTS performed all weapon release calculations and presented release cues that it had generated to the aircrew. The LTS also had a masking avoidance curve display (preventing firing the laser at the jet) and eventually a north orientation curve and 12,200 m (40,000 ft) capable laser. The latter became very useful allowing F-14s to employ LGBs above potential threat systems and it came into its own in the higher terrain in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom.
  The LTS could also generate coordinates for any target located on the FLIR, and a latter software modification, known as T3 (Tomcat Tactical Targeting) increased the accuracy of the coordinates produced by the LTS and allowed generated coordinates for GPS/INS guided weapons (JDAM, JSOW and WCMD). The first combat use of this was during Operation Enduring Freedom when an F-14 generated coordinates for a B-52 that dropped a CBU-103 WCMD from over 40,000 feet. These weapons scored hits on a vehicle convoy that had stopped after the first vehicle was destroyed by the Tomcat with LGBs.
  The pod also featured an internal computer with ballistics data for the various precision munitions carried by the F-14. Data is fed to the pod by the Tomcat's AWG-9 (F-14A and F-14B) and AN/APG-71 (F-14D) radar, but the LTS in turn only sends video and guidance symbology to the crew's co
caption: An F-14D carrying a LANTIRN pod, 2005
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