This x 1000.

F14 was too antiquated. It's RCS was massive and its was dubbed the 'flying aluminum cloud'.

I'm an F14 fanboy and won't disagree with you about it being a crappy ground attack platform.

Hint-- comformal fuel tanks conform.

Its really not a fair comparison. You should be comparing equivalent dates of service, not moving the goal posts with an aircraft that continues to be upgraded to this day. Of course the super hornet gets better range. Youre not comparing 1:1.

That said, i understand why the f14 was retired-- $$$. Money to fix its quirks, money to maintain it, need 2 pilots (manpower vs value) larger airframe (deckspace vs value) and cheney ($$$). Everything can be fixed with money they didnt want to invest.

Id still debate the f18 being an adequate successor and you cant tell me that a high speed long range interceptor isnt a mission that needs filled, but that ship dem sailed.

Time passed the Tomcat up, just like every other aircraft will one day be obsolete. If you are doing anything but comparing it to other assets that could launch and recover on on a carrier, you're wrong.

Sounds similar to how the SR 71 got its name.   A good up during a speech.

This is all that cocksucker Tom Cruise's fault.

You aren't wrong.

don't forget Kenny Loggins....

I think the point he was making (whether intentional or not), was that adversity/difficulty creates a sink or swim situation and produces stronger and more competent individuals.

My opinion is that missiles are the biggest carrier threat.  Maxing strike range as much as possible keeps them further away from misses, and increases the area subs have to search for them.  As much as I love tomcats, I think drones extending sensor range makes a lot more sense.

1) A carrier based Triton/Global Hawk type recon drone that flies high, has long range, carries a small weapons payload and can do the F35 trick of providing targeting info for ship based weapons.  The primary job would be extending the eyes of the fleet for earlier warning/targeting of missiles, and the weapon payload would provide some self defense, limited CAP and possibly long range ground strike options.

2) An extended range plane that favors stealth, speed and range and not dogfighting, which is I think what the AF penetrating counter air fighter is, but who knows what is finally decided upon.  It seems like f35 avionics and a more mission specific airframe could get this done, but I'm not a defense contractor so I don't know what problems could be milked for billions.  This helps restores the carriers striking range.

3) New theater air defense cruisers that take over ballistic missile defense and has a healthy supply of missiles to survive swarm attacks. The proposed San Antonio cruiser design would be off the shelf and probably a lot cheaper than a new design.  I don't think it can keep up with a carrier, but why does it need to.  Pair a San Antonio air defense cruiser with an America class landing ship carrying F35B's, and put them in the path of a likely attack on the "real" carrier.  Build a bunch of these air defense cruisers, design them for long deployments and all of a sudden we have BMD all over the place without wearing out our destroyers.

The carriers drones could extend sensor range for the fleet, and attacks on the carrier would have to go through the air defense cruiser & it's escorts first, and then the carrier's escorts and defenses.  F35B's provide CAP for the air defense cruiser and indirectly the carrier, with backup from the carrier's new long range plane and the carriers existing fighters.

Always better to shoot the archer instead of the arrow.

I’m sure it may have something to do with why nobody has developed a new swing wing jet in four decades.

6th gen USN F/A-XX fighter to replace the shit bomb F-35

Let's call it the A-12B.  

F-35 Part 2: No Vertical Stabilizers Boogaloo

Well, we know that's bullshit, we have it on good authority from the experts in GD that "there will never be another manned fighter produced."

There are some new lessons you can learn on the last pages of this.  You can probably log the thread as continuing education hours.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/2455696_Air-Force-discovers-how-to-convert-its-522-cargo-planes-into-bombers.html

GD is AFRL, MDA/DV, and DARPAs SBIR/BAA managers' wet dream.

Super cheap. The Chinese are doubtless already cranking these out like beer cans.

Funny that they all talk about these already being a thing but no one has any pictures or even any concept artwork of them...

A fleet of 300 Seawolf class submarines just for starters.

Is Kirkland AFB near Costco?

I know you're working on small, swarming, intercontinental, bunker busting drones.

HERTF is the symbol for the Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corp.  

The fact is it was a sexy plane, but the design was inherently not as durable. You can't have moving wings like that and not have huge wear issues after a while. Airfoil design also made it unnecessary and obsolete, with a shitty ROI in maintanence v performance. The swing wing was intended to address something that no longer applied to newer airframes.

The sad part is it isn't recent.  Shit, look at procurement leading up to WWI.  Plenty of shenanigans and skullduggery involved.

It's funny to read that now after all the new jets that have come out $$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

This, the AIM-54 kill probably was 80% at best. And that against drone targets

AIM-120D > AIM-54

Those are both air-to-air missiles.

Dude...

Compared to the AIM-7 of the day, 80% was like a death ray.  I recall the Sparrow's nickname being "The Great White Hope."

"A 104 in the weeds" was the usual culprit of AF pilots doing DACT against Luftwaffe pilots out of Luke AFB in the 1970s when their F-104 school was operating there.

The Germans continued a modified version of that tactic with success in their Phantoms, with designated shooters flying in the weeds with decoy/designated sacrifice Phantoms flying higher along the same track.  We had German crews going to Red Flag from George AFB who were getting kills on F-15s using that tactic, but they were losing Luftwaffe crews for each Eagle they killed.

Missing quite a few planes in the Century Series.