[STARMAN 352ND]

OH THIS IS SO SAD FOR THESE F-14'S....
I can see not letting the enemies getting parts from the F-14...
But Geez the whole plane...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/02/shr....ap/index.html

[ZS-VAN]

What a shame! I can see the CW Tomcat coming my way. Just got to get one!

[Cardinal]

I suspect other agendas may be at work here as the 'shredding' contracts appear pretty lucrative .

A couple of thoughts spring to mind:

• Why can't the F14s be securely stored?
• If their (F14) systems and technology are still so advanced, why were they scrapped in the first place?
• If the sh*t ever hits the fan is the F18 Super Hornet up to the air superiority task (as regards Naval ops.)?
• Does the USN currently have a combat aircraft as capable as the F14?
• How many redundant airframes are going to museums?
• Once scrapped they're gone forever!

[skysurfer808]

This reminds me of the YF-12/SR-71 saga, in which SecDef MacNamera ordered Lockheed to destroy the tooling for the Blackbird in order to silence critics and Congress's efforts to have more put into production. The real irony is that the Tomcat was killed by the SecDef in 1991, Dick Cheney, who mistrusted the Navy after it had spent billions on a paper airplane project (the A-12). Even though Grumman could have produced a Super Tomcat derivitive by the early 1990s, the decision was made to go with the Super Hornet, as Opcost considerations dictated going with the simpler platform. The Navy went along, especially after Tailhook destroyed the credibility of Navair with the incoming democratic administration. The fact the Navy is getting an inferior platform didn't enter into the equation, instead the brass went along in order to save carrier aviation from aircraft famine. Tomahawks were to be the true replacement of manned aircraft, something misleading that happened from Gulf War 1. Nobody gave much thought to scenarios long range aircraft would be useful in. Now we are hearing of UAVs being useful supplements to manned platforms. Supposedly Tomcat tooling is stored in a "secure" location, though this may be another military urban legend. A Tomcat replacement is definately needed, and as lead times for production aircraft are so long now, if the USN doesn't initiate one, it will likely face superior adversaries in the decades to come....and the Super Hornet and Lightning 2 definately don't fit the bill as a Tomcat replacement.

What is especially ironic is the Self Sufficiency Jihad of Iran and Iranian Aerospace Industries most likely is able to produce most Tomcat parts on its own, so the effort to destroy F-14s may only hurt the USA and efforts to bring the F-14 back into service with the USN.

Skysurfer808

[STARMAN 352ND]

I just get a bad feeling about the F-14 being hacked to death.........It will end up bitting the Navy in the for shutting it down in the first place..
and when that happeneds who are they going to point their finger at....Someone is going to take the blame for not using their head.
They need to let these F-14's fly in the US Navy again and get upgraded to a SuperCat until they have a F-22 type fighter of their own.

JP

[Cardinal]

Originally Posted by STARMAN 352ND

I just get a bad feeling about the F-14 being hacked to death.........It will end up bitting the Navy in the for shutting it down in the first place..
and when that happeneds who are they going to point their finger at....Someone is going to take the blame for not using their head.
They need to let these F-14's fly in the US Navy again and get upgraded to a SuperCat until they have a F-22 type fighter of their own.

JP

Agreed, the US Navy's carrier fleet groups represent one of the largest (figuratively and literally) stabilising influences globally. Without the F14, I've serious concerns about their future ability to both project air power as well as protect themselves from sophisticated hostile elements .

[mustangdriver]

I think that too much is being placed on the F-18. What is there is an airframe problem and they want to ground all of the F-18's? It has happened.

[SKUNKY]

Gotta let the Tomcat go, guys....She's gone and she ain't coming back.....ever. They are all worn out and in the end were huge maintenance pigs.....
and the fabulous Dick Cheney ordered Grumman to destroy the tooling and molds for them about 15 years before he shot his hunting partner in a bizarre "accident".....
Coincidence?..I think not...

The Super Hornet will serve the Navy fine. Hollywood just needs to come along with another shrimpy Scientologist actor and turn it into a superstar....Then everybody will forget about the F-14....

[skysurfer808]

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

Gotta let the Tomcat go, guys....She's gone and she ain't coming back.....ever. They are all worn out and in the end were huge maintenance pigs.....
and the fabulous Dick Cheney ordered Grumman to destroy the tooling and molds for them about 15 years before he shot his hunting partner in a bizarre "accident".....
Coincidence?..I think not...

The Super Hornet will serve the Navy fine. Hollywood just needs to come along with another shrimpy Scientologist actor and turn it into a superstar....Then everybody will forget about the F-14....

The Tomcat is gone (in the US anyways) but what is still missing is the capabilities the F-14 brought to a Carrier Air Group. As far as replacements go, the F/A-18E/F has definately not fit the bill.

The Super Hornet.
1) Has a shorter combat radius then the F-14
2) Is incapable of flight faster than Mach 1 below 10000 feet with external stores
3) Is not as fast as the F-14
4) Is not as manuverable as the legacy Hornet

On the other hand the Super Hornet
1) Is more reliable than the F-14 and requires far fewer Maintenance hours than the Tomcat
2) Has more advanced avionics (especially the AESA equipped versions)
3) Is capable of carrying a greater variety of Ordinance
4) Is capable of generating more sorties

The F-35C will provide a degree of long range stealthy strike capability for the fleet, however, it will not have the degree of air to air capability the F-14 had. Nor will it have the 2 man crew capability of either the F-14 or F/A-18F, something to ponder given the task saturation inherent in strike missions. Short of developing an all new Fighter aircraft, the USN is left with soldiering on with inferior platforms, unless the Made in America bias is overcome and foreign platforms are procured. Retired Rear Admiral Paul Gillcrist proposed buying Sukhois, which if re-engined and reequpped with Western Avionics, actually would be an ideal solution. This idea will never happen, but one thing that ought to be pondered by those touting the superiority of Western systems is the fact that the expected life of a Sukhoi before overhaul is 3000 hours, while the actual airframe life of already procured Super Hornets is....3000 hours (originally 6000 but reduced to 3000 because of problems of fatigue in the wing fold systems, which will require a costly series of modifications to future production batches) Also, keep in mind operators of the Legacy Hornet are already having to shell out millions for the replacement of the aircraft's center barrel section, which is wearing out faster than anticipated in both carrier and land based versions. The Hornet has compiled its impressive reliability figures while new out of the box, it remains to be seen what will happen to the aircraft as they get older.

The sad fact is the Hornet was designed as the low end of the Navy's high low mix during the 1970s. It was never meant to be the High end, which is what it has become. The Navy needs a high end air superiority platform, or it risks being irrelevant (or worse, calling to the Air Force for fleet fighter cover)....something that has never been an ideal solution for any navy.

Skysurfer808

[flyXwire]

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

Gotta let the Tomcat go, guys....She's gone and she ain't coming back.....ever. They are all worn out and in the end were huge maintenance pigs.....

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

and the fabulous Dick Cheney ordered Grumman to destroy the tooling and molds for them about 15 years before he shot his hunting partner in a bizarre "accident".....

Coincidence?..I think not...

The Super Hornet will serve the Navy fine. Hollywood just needs to come along with another shrimpy Scientologist actor and turn it into a superstar....Then everybody will forget about the F-14....

Don't forget about the campy music background too: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://webs.lanset.com/aeolusaero/images/P-80%2520helmet%25201946%2520web%2520shot.jpg&imgrefurl=http://webs.lanset.com/aeolusaero/Articles/romance_of_the_gear.htm&h=300&w=225&sz=19&hl=en&start=53&tbnid=MQDyOLhgerIC6M:&tbnh=116&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFrench%2BExperimental%2BJet%2BEngines %26start%3D36%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%2 6hl%3Den%26sa%3DN