Iran's former fleet of 80 F-14A Tomcat fighters enters Canadian Service in late 1980. It's a big improvement from the Forces' previous CF-101, CF-104 and CF-5 aircraft. This allows the CF-101 Voodoo to be retired, except for a number of EF-101s that stayed in service into the 1990s. The training school picks up 12 of the very new Iranian F-14s and begins pilot training with them. The Aircraft is designated the CF-144, but it generally uses the CF-14 name.
(OOC: The CC-144 is the Challenger 600, which doesn't enter CF service until years later, so it can be called the CF-144.)
On September 16, 1981, the first CF-14 crash occurs, as Pilot James Cayden and RIO Andrew Hamilton are killed when their F-14 suffers a compressor stall and rolls into the ground on a landing approach, killing both. This, and two subsequent Tomcat crashes in 1981, raise the problem of crashes. When Navy Secreatry John Lehman also concurs the problem causing issues for the US Navy, both countries begin efforts to find new engines for the Tomcat. By late 1982, the US has settled upon replacing the TF30 engines with the F100-PW-200 unit of the F-16. Canada agrees as well, and Canadian CF-14s are refitted with the engines in 1984-85.
The Canadians also decided that their aircraft needed to carry and use air to ground munitions, which resulted in a Canadian plan to make the CF-14 able to drop bombs and use aire to ground munitions such as the AGM-65 Maverick and AGM-84 Harpoon. This development is first tested on a CF-14 in April 1988, and proves successful. All Canadian CF-14s are retrofitted between 1989 and 1991. The first retrofitted ones went to fight in Desert Storm.
During this time, the military changes as well. Canada purchases six Trafalgar-class nuclear submarines from Britain. Initial US objections are over-ruled by the USN - long-time speculation said that was because the Navy wanted to know how the Canadians did with their development of weapons systems for their F-14s.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the world demanded Iraq get out and sent a huge force to drive them out. Canada deployed 36 of its CF-14s, which provem themselves very nicely indeed. The CF-14Bs were more than capable of dropping bombs on Iraqi forces and defening the skies. One Canadian CF-14 was lost when it was shot down by an Iraqi MiG-23, but the Canadian aircraft had shot four MiGs before that, earning its pilot (who survived) and RIO (who didn't) the Victoria Cross, Canada's first since Korea. The CF-14s returned to Canada victorious, and between them and the Trafalgar class subs had proved the validity of the Canadian Forces.
The USN, also impressed by the Canadian improvements to the F-14s, got approval to buy the electronic sets themselves. The USN gave Canada a F-14A in return for the one lost in Iraq, and bought the new electronics to drop bombs. These F-14s gained the F-14D name with the USN. The Canadian Forces ones in the 1990s also gained improvements. The CF-14s again saw combat in Bosnia, assisting the international forces there.
In 1994, Congress rejected the proposals for upgrading the Tomcat, but the Canadian Forces (OOC: Who have much more funding in this universe) liked the idea, and asked Grumman to build a demonstrator for them. Grumman, (which became Northrop Grumman) did so, and the Attack Super Tomcat 21, as they called it, was indeed quite an aircraft. The price of it was high, but in 1997 Canada decided it was worth it, and ordered 94 of the aircraft, 65 to be built from Canadian CF-14s.
The first CF-14E SuperCat arrived in Canada on May 24, 1999, and the first squadron of them entered service in January 2001. All were delivered by mid-2003. Canada deployed its first squadron of the CF-14Es to Afghanistan in December 2001, as part of the effort against the Taliban and Al-Queda. The aircraft showed themselves well there.
Congress' decision to not build more advanced Tomcat versions resulted in the F-14 being set for retirement from the USN in 2004, but the CF-14E was so good in Afghanistan that the US Navy began reconsidering the idea. In 2005, a surprising decision by Northrop Grumman resulted in the CF-14E design being sold to Canada's Bombardier, which sealed the end of the F-14 in USN service. The last was retired in 2006.
But in Canadian service, the CF-14E was a highly useful tool. Canadian industry was more than capable of continuing to upgrade it. In 2006, Canada participated in the Copa India exercise amongst the Commonwealth nations and USAF. The USAF was displeased to learn that the Indian Air Force's Sukhoi Su-30MKIs beat the F-15 variants flown by the US and Singapore, and they also beat the Australian F/A-18s and British Tornados. However, the best of the Indian Air Force fell to the awesome Eurofighter Typhoons of the RAF and Canada's improbable CF-14Es - an older design that had come good amazingly well.
Copa India was such a success for the Canadian Forces that the US offered to bring Canadian industries into the development of the F-35 Lightning II, which many figured would be the CF-14s replacement. The year after, Brazil and South Korea made offers to Canada to buy the CF-14 Supercat. This produced a minor shock, but Bombardier agreed that the fighters could be exported. Northrop Grumman filed a protest, but US courts agreed that Bombardier had sold the designs, so it was irrelevant. The US Defende Department, however, refused the sale of engines for export CF-14s. South Korea then cancelled the deal, and the US offered the F-15K Slam Eagle in its place. This produced a roar from Canada, to the point that the Canadian Forces began to consider developing a new engine.
Brazil, however, was more interested still, and was singularly mad that the US would try such stunts. Brazil asked if a Russian AL-41 engine would fit. The US in January 2008 said that the refusal to sell engines was for security reasons. Brazil responded a week later by saying that the F110-GE-132 engine of the CF-14E was used in the F-16s in many nations, and that the US was trying to corner a market. Brazil at the same time affirmed its commitment to the Supercat, and asked for engine proposal for it. The Russian AL-41 soon entered the picture, but realizing that Brazil could wind up with CF-14s with Russian engines, the US DoD broke down and offered Brazil the F110-GE-132, which was eventually chosen.
The Obama Administration's Department of Defense took a much different line to the Bush Administration, and AMARG offered to provide Canada with all 55 F-14D Tomcats for free in April 2009, as repayment for what was almost certainly a lost order. Canada took them and upgraded them to the CF-14E standard, allowing some of the higher-airframe CF-14s to be retired.
The Canadians began developing a new engine, however. Prime Minister Stephen Harper in April 2008 asked the Canadian Forces to create an all Canadian engine for the CF-14, despite the long time it was expected to take to build it. The Eurojet Consortium immediately offered to assist, and would allow the Canadians to build engines for whoever wanted them. As the Canucks saw using the CF-14 until 2030, development time didn't seem a problem.
Canadian Industry also took the engine project as a challenge. A number of Canadian firms, including CAE, Research in Motion, ATI Technologies and SNC-Lavalin offered to provide their services, as did a number of start-up firms with interests in technology.
This sudden growth of interest in technology, combined with the Aerospace business, led to Canada gaining a fair share of technology transfer with the F-35 project. Canada formally committed to buying the F-35 in August 2010, but at the same time Defense Minister Rick Hillier made it clear that the CF-14E would be around for a while yet and that the new engine program for it would continue. Hillier's most stunning comment was saying "In the past, we made decisions that we later came to regret in the development of aircraft and aero engines. Decisions that we will not make again."
The engine program produced its first designs in November 2010. The engine design was named the PS.14 Haida, a reference to the legendary PS-13 Iroquois engine, developed for the Avro CF-105 Arrow, whose development and cancellation were Canadian legends. The Haida was designed to be a relatively large turbofan, though smaller and lighter than the massive GE units of the current CF-14. The design shared many similarities to the impressive Eurojet EJ200 of the Typhoon, though it was clearly much larger and had much greater thrust than the EJ200.
The first tests, held in August 2012, confirmed what many had already figured - the PS.14 was perhaps the world's most advanced aero engine. First tests produced a stunning 25,000 lbs of thrust at normal speeds, 36,500 lbs of thrust on full afterburner. It had fuel consumption only about 25% worse than the EJ200, which produced half as much thrust at normal speeds. The design was so advanced that sme in the forces advocated using it for the Canadian Forces' F-35 fleet.
The first CF-14E Supercat with the PS.14 engines flew on July 14, 2014. The results were just as amazing as what had been predicted. Final versions of the PS.14 made as much as 42,500 lbs of thrust. The CF-14E equipped with the PS.14 had much better performance than the already amazing standard model - so much so that the CF said that they would challenge anything in the world to a maneuverability contest - even the Eurofighter or F-22 Raptor.
The engine passed CF trials in February 2016, and began to be fitted to CF-14Es shortly thereafter. The new aircraft was named the CF-14F SuperCat, and the additional engine power allowed for even greater carrying capacity. It was also found that the PS.14 was more efficient than the F110-GE-132, which increased the range on the CF-14.
The Korea Crisis of 2017 gave the first chance for much of the world's aircraft to show themselves, including the CF-14F. The North Korean Air Force did have enough fuel to fight a real war, and they did - or tried to. USAF F-22s easily cleared much of the KPAF's aircraft, though one Canadian flight caught a half dozen KPAF MiG-23s and smoked them with none even getting a shot off.