To prove that "Big Dick" Cheney had tons of swing and could beat up Grumman.
It was a squabble over a projected next-gen Tomcat project. Cheney (with Poppy Bush's nod) killed it -- and ordered the dies cut up -- to make a point. To make a point. Guess that means more in Bushworld than "the future security of the United States".
There were at least three designs left on the drawing-board for follow-on "improved" Tomcat designs when he did that.
>>There were at least three designs left on the drawing-board for follow-on “improved” Tomcat designs when he did that.<<
I loved the Tomcat — but part of me wondered whether VG was worth the complexity, given the performance profile of modern fixed-wing jets.
But I don’t design jets for a living, I just admire them from afar...
I wasn’t aware that he had that done. I’m losing more and more respect for that man, especially as I learn more about what he did under Bush 41 to gut the Navy.