About This Content

The F-14 Tomcat was one of the most iconic combat aircraft ever built: a two-crew, variable-geometry, carrier-based fighter designed for fleet defense, air superiority, and long-range interception. Born for the age of carrier battle groups and high-speed intercepts over the ocean, the Tomcat became a symbol of US naval aviation, combining sweeping wings, immense power, long-range sensors, and the legendary AIM-54 Phoenix into one of the most recognizable fighters in history.

Yet the Tomcat’s story did not end as a Cold War fleet defender. Over the course of its long service life, the F-14 evolved from a dedicated maritime air-superiority fighter into a far more flexible multirole platform. It remained capable of defending the fleet and dominating the air, but increasingly found new purpose in precision strike, reconnaissance, forward air control, and long-range combat operations over the mountains, deserts, cities, and coastlines of a very different era.

The F-14B Upgrade represents one of the most important late chapters in that evolution: the transition from an icon of the Cold War into a 2000s modern, multirole, all-weather, air superiority and precision-strike aircraft. It is still big. It is still raw. It is still unmistakably an F-14. But now, it looks forward with the tools needed to survive in the age of modern warfare.

The Heatblur Simulations DCS: F-14B(U) aims to recreate this later Tomcat as a major expansion for our DCS: F-14A/B module. It builds on the aircraft you already know, while adding a substantially evolved cockpit, updated exterior representation, new avionics, new navigation and mission-management tools, new defensive systems, new weapons capability, new missions and new campaigns.

At the center of the upgraded front cockpit is the new VDIG-R with modernized HUD, bringing targeting data, navigation cues, RWR information, LANTIRN integration, JDAM delivery information, and multiple target designation boxes directly into the pilot’s field of view. In the rear cockpit, the classic TID is replaced by the PTID, giving the RIO a larger and more capable interface for sensors, navigation, targeting, and precision-strike employment.

The defensive suite has evolved as well. The ALE-47 brings programmable, mission-configurable chaff and flare dispensing with improved integration into the aircraft’s defensive systems. The ECMD is upgraded with MFD mode, enabling TID repeat functionality and ALR-67 integration, improving the crew’s ability to monitor threats and manage the fight. And the new Fast Tactical Imaging System, or FTI, allows you to share images from one Tomcat to another. Together with JDAM / GBU-31 integration, EGI navigation, GPS, CDNU and Mission Data Loader support, the F-14B Upgrade becomes what the late-life Tomcat became operationally: a heavy-hitting, long-range, two-seat strike platform.

For the pilot, one of the most important changes is one you may feel before you see it. The analog AFCS gives way to DFCS, the Digital Flight Control System. DFCS does not turn the Tomcat into a modern fly-by-wire jet. At its core, it remains a Tomcat: physical, powerful, and very much alive in your hands. But it refines the aircraft’s behavior in critical parts of the envelope, improving departure resistance, high-angle-of-attack handling, roll response, spin resistance, and carrier approach characteristics, while preserving the aircraft’s raw and rugged soul.

Visually, the F-14B(U) receives updated cockpit and exterior art, new pilot models and helmets, improved animations, new pilot equipment, new wing vapor effects, new liveries and new aircraft animations including vertical and horizontal tail flex. JESTER AI also receives selected improvements, including the new context button, and has learned to use the upgraded systems.

Many improvements developed for the B Upgrade will also come to the rest of the Tomcat family, including the in-game browser, in-game manual with click-to-explain feature, grease pencil, and more. The expansion also includes a new set of instant action missions and two campaigns: Operation Reforger Part III over Cold War Germany, available on day one of release, and a tailor-made F-14B(U) campaign by Baltic Dragon, to be added after initial release.

The F-14B Upgrade is not a replacement for the Tomcat you already know. It is the next chapter.

The same sweeping wings. The same two-seat teamwork. The same carrier-borne presence. The same mixture of raw power, in-depth complexity, and rugged character that made the F-14 unforgettable. But now with VDIG-R, PTID, JDAM, EGI, CDNU, DFCS, FTI, ALE-47, modernized mission planning, improved defensive systems, a sharper late-service cockpit, and a whole set of new content - built for the era of modern warfare.

Still dangerous, ever demanding. Forever Tomcat. 

Key Features

• New updated art faithfully representing the changes in the cockpit, overhauling the exterior, and adjusting the aircraft to the F-14B Upgrade configuration, including new pilot models and helmets, improved pilot animations, new pilot equipment, new wing vapor effects, new liveries and new aircraft animations including vertical tail flex and horizontal tail flex.

• New modern Head-Up Display: VDIG replacement / VDIG-R and HUD, significantly improving pilot situational awareness with features such as:

  • Multiple target designation boxes

  • LANTIRN integration

  • JDAM integration

  • RWR integration

  • Extensive navigation data integration

• Tactical Information Display (TID) replaced by the new Programmable Tactical Information Display (PTID) which enables better and more efficient information readout and control of system parameters with features such as:

  • Simultaneous display of raster video and symbology

  • On screen buttons

  • JDAM weapon programming

  • Stores management system.

• New EGI-based navigation system, bringing quality-of-life improvements such as:

  • GPS

  • CDNU for navigation data input / output

  • Automatic waypoint sequencing

• GPS-guided munitions: the F-14B Upgrade brings JDAM / GBU-31 integration.

• ECMD upgraded with MFD mode, enabling TID repeat mode and ALR-67 integration.

• AFCS is replaced by DFCS, the Digital Flight Control System, introducing:

  • Lateral Stick-to-Rudder Interconnect

  • Wing Rock Suppression

  • Roll Rate Command Tracking

  • Low Airspeed AOA Cross-Control

  • Spin Recovery Mode

• ALE-47 countermeasure system replaces ALE-39, bringing programmable, mission-configurable chaff and flare dispensing with improved integration into the aircraft’s defensive systems.

• New data cartridge / Mission Data Loader system integrated with the Mission Editor, enabling:

  • JDAM target data

  • Up to 12 flight plans with up to 50 waypoints each

  • ALE-47 configuration

• New AN/AVX-3 Tactical Imaging Set. Allows sensor image capture, transmission, and reception between aircraft.

• JESTER has learned new tricks: selected JESTER 2.0 features, such as the context button, will come to the F-14B Upgrade and the rest of the Tomcat family.

• Additional Tomcat family improvements, including:

  • In-game browser

  • In-game manual with click-to-explain feature

  • Grease pencil

• A whole new set of instant action missions.

• Two new campaigns:

  • Operation Reforger III over Cold War Germany

  • A tailor-made campaign for the F-14B Upgrade by Baltic Dragon, to be added after initial release.