The warplane designed to meet this need was the Douglas F6D Missileer, which was planned as a completely subsonic launch platform for six long-range AAMs. In 1957 the US Navy had issued a request for proposals for a new fighter/missile combination that would provide its strategically vital carrier battle groups with the aerial means to carry the entire burden of effecting the interception of inbound hostile warplanes and air-launched anti-ship missiles at long range from their US targets.

The importance of the AWG-9/AIM-54 combination was that for the first time it became possible for an AAM to be launched without first being locked onto a specific target, enabling the crew to use the F-14 s radar to see what was happening elsewhere and only later in the attack locking the missile onto its target Designed for the abortive General Dynamics F-111B swing-wing naval fighter, the AIM-54A Phoenix was brought to fruition (together with its associated Hughes AWG-9 pulse-Doppler radar fire-control system) in the Grumman F-14 Tomcat fleet-defence fighter.

Aim 54