[Sting 11]

Yeah, an early version of it lost the Light Weight Fighter competition in the Air Force to the F-16 (It was known as the YF-17 at that time). It was modernized and modified for Navy use as the F/A-18 (the Navy liked the beefier structure and two engines compared to the F-16).

The F/A-18 does it's job well as a light fighter/attack plane, and replaced the F-4 in the Navy and Marine Corps as such. But its was never, ever intended to replace the F-14 in the fleet defense role...it is out of it's league in that role!

[Paul Ross]

But its was never, ever intended to replace the F-14 in the fleet defense role...it is out of it's league in that role!

Indeed, we need to call Dick Cheney on the carpet for his allowing the F-14 titanium wing-box tooling to be destroyed back in '91 when he was SecDef.

We should have fired up production of updated versions of the F-14. How long can we keep the old war-horses flying?