It could have been: The F-14 in RAF service

Not sure if I have mentioned them before here, but the Aviation Geek Club site really lives up to their moniker. They have all sorts of excellent articles on their site that are worth checking out, but there is one in particular that caught my eye a while back about how close was Britain to buying the F-14.

The RAF F-14 Tomcat Fighter Jets that Never Were

Not to steal too much of their thunder over there, but in reality, the answer was it was never that close to being in RAF service. Ultimately, back when the requirement for the new RAF fighter/interceptor was made, they did realize that the F-14 Tomcat not only met the requirements, but it exceeded them!

What could have been: It looks good in RAF markings. All pics form the article. 

However, there is no denying that the Tomcat in it's early days had it's issues as well as the fact it was nearly four times the price of the fighter of the day, the F-4 Phantom that was in use at the time in Britain. That, and the Brit government had a long time axe to grind when it comes to the Americans killing off the British Aviation industry, and was absolutely determined to make their own home built solution. 

So, we all know what actually happened, which is the RAF eventually got the home-brewed Air Defense Variant of the Tornado, which served fairly well, but had some even greater limitations than the Phantom it replaced, as well as being fantastically more expensive than the Tomcat, not to mention far less capable. 

The Tornado ADV: An acceptable interceptor, a fairly poor fighter.

It's a darn shame, because with the British being invested in the Tomcat, I could see there being far more emphasis on correcting the shortcomings of the A model cat into something far better in a faster time that what we got in reality. It also would have offered a fighter that was ready for service in the 1974 -75 time instead of waiting for the Tornado to arrive in 82. Anyways, that's not all there was to the story, so be sure to check out the article over on their site for the full scoop.

The big cat would have just been so cool in those markings.