I DO NOT keep up anymore! What follows it? And what of the Tornado?
The F-14 is outsies, too, in case some of you have only recently come out of the hinterlands as I have.
WARNING: RANT AHEAD
Guess what replaces the venerable TomCat? Some sort of F-18 compromised hybrid crap-slinger, that's what. They're calling it the Super Hornet or some such silliness. AS IF.
Say what you want about CWIS, tactical need structures, "integrated defense networks,' and all the other budget cutting hoo-haw being trundled out again in this current phase of wheedling defense reductions. We soon forget the old lessons, don't we?
Remember how badly we Yanks missed cannons in jet fighters - once they were gone? Oh, we patted ourselves on the back when we placed our all eggs in the missile basket. But, we fairly tripped over our own asses putting guns back in our planes - and learning how to shoot them again, when that mistake was revealed in combat over Vietnam. If you want to save money, send illegal latinos back home and quit printing everything double, in Spanish.
I've been at sea, aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, CV-67. "Big John," is sadly retired now, too. But when I was in the NAVAIR, it was very comforting to know those big, expensive TomCats were overhead on CAP. Along with the E2-C's, with their 500 mile sweeps, all was well. Sleep tight, my boys - the 'Cats are on the prowl.
Now we have a 'cross-functionally multitasked, seamless, air group,' supposedly able to protect itself, drop bombs on the badguys' heads AND even share parts and maintenance. Sounds good, right? To quote a well known character from English literature, "BAH! Humbug!"
What I'm hearing is that we're committing to a compromise aircraft, with the range of a buzzfly and NO decent long range AAR missile system. In this case, it's got a gun, but now it'll wait for it's targets to come close. Read that as, "close to the carrier and battle group - otherwise known as home afloat!" Last I checked, the Russians, the French and the Chinese were still happily running their usual arms market, selling their excellent products to anyone with the cash.
Nothing has changed... we never seem to learn.
END OF RANT. You may now safely return to the normally scheduled discussion...