Posted on 03/10/2006 4:40:39 PM PST by Sub-Driver
'Top Gun' Jets Retired By U.S. Navy F-14s To Be Replaced By Super Hornets
POSTED: 5:52 pm EST March 10, 2006 UPDATED: 7:18 pm EST March 10, 2006
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The last two squadrons of the Tomcat -- the sleek, Cold War fighter jet -- returned home from their final deployment Friday, two decades after the warplanes were glamorized in the 1986 Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun."
All 22 Tomcats of fighter squadrons VF-213 and VF-31 arrived in style, flying together in a wedge formation over Oceana Naval Air Station as hundreds of sailors and their family and friends cheered. Some wore T-shirts reading "Tomcats Forever" and a banner proclaimed, "Last Fly-In, Baby!"
"We're putting the premier fighter to sleep," said pilot Lt. Jon Jeck, 32, as he held his 3-year-old son Collin. "It's a staple of Americana."
The Navy plans to replace the F-14, a two-seat fighter with moveable swept-back wings, with the F/A-18 Super Hornets.
The F-14 entered service in the early 1970s to defend aircraft carriers from Soviet bombers carrying long-range cruise missiles.
"If you want to think about airplanes that have defined the air age, this would have to be on the short list," military analyst John Pike said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbc10.com ...
Ping.
End of an era.
After the Cold War, the Navy became less concerned about defending carrier groups and transformed the F-14 into a bomb-dropping fighter jet, said Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria research center on security issues.
"But it was not designed as a bomb hauler," Pike said. "They would rather have a new plane ... than try to teach an old cat new tricks."
This is why anything "expert" John Pike says or writes should always be taken with a grain of salt. The Tomcat was designed from day one to haul bombs. The Navy never exploited that capability, beyond testing, until after the decisions to retire the A-6 and kill the A-12 were made.
Of all my patches that one is my favorite. (I gave George H.W. Bush one the first time we swapped patches)
TT
The 14 bombs are the dark ones along the centerline, for those who are unfamiliar.
Pike's an idiot. And he has bad teeth, too.
ping.
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