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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?

Well, I gotta disagree there. What we need is a new design to operate in the fleet defense role. I think the design needs to have a higher speed (Mach 3+) than the F-14 and a 21st Century sophisticated search and track radar. Stealth is not necessary. It must be capable of carrying 6-8 extended range AMRAAM or new design long-range missiles with a 50+ nm range. That would be a helluva interceptor!

I think the design needs to have a higher speed (Mach 3+) than the F-14 and a 21st Century sophisticated search and track radar.

You're certainly not going to land that on a 40,000 ton carrier! (see thread) The F-14 has swing wings precisely because to solve the dilema of how to land a Mach 2+ Interceptor on a (super) carrier deck. Ever wonder why the F-15 doesn't have swing wings? The payoff isn't worth the weight penalty.

Give me the range/loiter capability and I'll have the follow-on to the F-14. I don't think we need the speed. There aren't that many Backfire bombers around anymore.

Stealth is not necessary.

Perhaps. But it is being regarded more and more as the essential feature in air dominance. Even the Russians are trying to effectively deploy stealth air craft, and may be having some success, with craft such as their Project 1.42/1.44 or Mig 35

From that same source:

The actual interesting aspect of the 1.44's stealth technology is something called 'Plasma Stealth Technology'. This system, designed by the Russian Federation Keldysh NITs (Nauchno- Issledovatelskiy Tsentr or Scientific Research Centre) is based on electromagnetic wave-plasma interactions.

Plasma Stealth
According to its director, Anatoliy Koroteyev, the system weighs less than 100kg and consumes little more than several dozen kW of power.

The plasma generator would envelop the aircraft in a film of ionized gas, which would be impervious to radar pulses, theoretically rendering the warplane electronically 'invisible'.

This however, may put out more heat placing the fighter in a disadvantageous situation but the design and superagility of the MiG could possibly offset that problem.

Keldysh NITs said that "first- and second-" generation plasma-generators had been tested on the ground and in flight. A third-generation system, "based on new physical principles" is a possible field of electrostatic energy around an airframe to further reduce TRCS.

There are rumors also that Russia is attempting to develop 'smart skins' on composite frames to enable warplanes to mimic their background.

MY COMMENT on this asserted development. How long then before we see Russian cruise missiles which incorporate this feature? And are we ready for it?