Battle of the SuperFighters: F-14D Tomcat v. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

Flight Journal ^ | Unkonwn | Bob Kress and RADM Paul Gillcrist, USn (Ret)

[hchutch]

Personally, I'd have the F/A-18E/F replace the F/A-18C/Ds, and go with 24 Tomcats per carrier.

Use the Tomcats for some of the air-superiority stuff, and all-weather attack, while the F/A-18s can also do both. The A-6 was a good plane, but with carriers likely to be the "first responders" to a crisis situation, and since wars are decided by who controls the air, I'd go with two-seat F/A-18Fs, and give the F-14s all-weather strike capability to fill the gap for the most part.

[oldsalt]

In 1975, an A-7 Corsair II was mounted on a pedestal outside the now closed Navy Master Jet Base, Cecil Field, Florida. On the base of the pedestal was a large bronze plaque bearing the inscription: “The main battery of the fleet.”

Amen,amen,amen. I was a maintenaance CPO in an A-7 squadron when the F-18 was coming on line in the early 80's. I remember well a late night "bull" session with my CO, a former test pilot,regarding the shortcomings of the F-18 vis-a-vis the A-7 in the attack mode.

He deemed the F-18 inferior in all categories when carrying external ordnance;payload,range and speed.We knew it then,it's criminal that it was allowed to proceed.

The F-14 is currently being phased out,that too would be criminal IMHO.

[wjcsux]

Air superiority belongs to the F-14 equipped with AIM-54C's. Nothing else, with the exception of the YF-22, comes close! The A-6 is a much superior all weather close ground support aircraft than almost anything else that has been built. The F-15E Strike Eagle is probably the only one that is better. There is nothing wrong with the F/A-18 except for being slow, minimal capability to carry arnament, too heavy, and minimal unrefueled range. Other than that, it is an excellent combat aircraft.
The big joke in NAVAIR circles is that you have a choice of carrying fuel or arnament with a Hornet, you can't carry both!

[Sahib]

FYI, Admiral Gillcrist and Kress defend their impartiality and credentials on another bulletin board, located here.

[Still Thinking]

Thanks very much, both of you. Very cool!

[hchutch]

I disagree. I like the notion of having aircraft that can handle both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The E/F version is probably a good complement to the F-14D.

Again, the first responder to a crisis, whether it is one that involves conflict or just to settle things down, it would be better to have sixty fighters to maintain air superiority rather than just the 24 the two Tomcat squadrons would provide.

[wjcsux]

The biggest problem w/ the Hornets is that you better keep a tanker in close proximity. These birds are turkeys from the word go!

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

From December: F-14D Tomcat vs. F/18 E/F Super Hornet

[CyberAnt]

When the Navy was still in charge of Miramar Airbase near San Diego, they used to fly the F-14's all the time. During my lunch time, I would sit in my car to eat lunch, just to watch and listen to them fly by. The sound the plane would make when it took a very tight turn with the wings swept back was an awesome sound and sight to behold.

Now, all we have are helicoptors. Boring!!

[Mr. Thorne]

I fell in love with the F-14's back in the '80s. Went and saw an air show at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Ohio (when we still had a reserve squadron of A-7s).

Watching the water BOIL off the top of that plane into a cone of steam when it made a full speed turn with its wings at full sweep was incredible. It's a magnificant plane.

We should keep it in service, IMHO.

[185JHP]

It has been observed that "politics is about who gets what." In this case, because of the politics of nefarians, we got something that's slow, fat, doesn't turn well, and has limited range. Sad that not enough guys with stars care enough to speak out about fiascoes like this - they care more about cushy jobs after retirement than about the welfare of brothers-in arms. Lots of great people in the military - there are others.

[poorgeorge]

The F-14D is a far superior aircraft than than the much touted Super Hornet. But former Secretary of Defense Cheney made sure this aircraft can never be resurrected. For one thing, he ordered destruction of all F-14 tooling. This senseless act only ensured any opposition to the the Super Hornet program. Allow me to elaborate why the Navy leadership and the politicans made an unforgiveable blunder. Before the F/A-18E/F ever existed, let alone flew for the first time, the F-14D was in production. It finally had reliable and superior engines it deserved all along and updated avionics. Its untapped strike fighter capability was finally realized that paralled to that of its USAF counterpart, the F-15E Strike Eagle. The hundreds of millions of dollars that went into the Super Hornet would have been better spent on the F-14D Tomcat that was already in production! We're talking about costly development money that could have converted into actual tangible air assets. With everything said and done, the venerable F-14 does a better job than the new Super Hornet that is just starting to enter service. The hundreds of millions could have gone into new F-14D aircraft to replace the older "A" model aircraft. Another fact, the Navy wanted a bigger aircraft that carries more fuel, ordance, and ability to bring back unjettioned munitions. Why spend millions on developing a small light weight aircraft to a more capable heavier aircraft when you already have one, the F-14D already in production? The Air Force still flies F-15 Eagles, but they're not be retired anytime soon. Surely the Air Force had the wisdom that when a modified F-16F with a delta wing could not compete with the larger F-15E Strike Eagle that was already deployed and in production. What is really sad, is that the Tomcat is an endangered species and the NAVAIR and the politicians are going to go with a substandard replacement. There is plenty of blame to go around. The F-14 community should have early on strived for more reliable engines early on. NAVAIR should have tapped onto the Tomcat's strike capability earlier and even replaced the A-6 Intruder with the "Bombcat" before the Super Hornet ever was proposed. Ideally the F-14D and the Quickstrike versions could have carried Naval Aviation over until the F-35 JSF became available. The only bright side is that Americans will make the best of what they have. The inferior U.S. Sherman tanks may have been easy targets for the German Tiger tanks in WWII, outnumbering them and using favorable tactics, the Tiger Tanks were overwhelmed. But that came at the cost of many dead and maimed American Tank crewmen. The Super Hornet will have to do, but it will cost U.S. aircrew against the very formidable Sukhoi Flanger that is being flown by potential enemies.

[185JHP]

Thanks.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep. The F-14D with it's new engines should be the Navy's choice. They should kick the F-18 to the curb and start up F-14 production again.

[JSteff]

“They should kick the F-18 to the curb and start up F-14 production again.”

My parents saw what the later heard was the list F-14’s fly into Oceana. My Dad said they were still beautiful planes, my mom said she shed a few tears.

The Navy was stupid. Then they spend a ton of money destroying or dismantling the F-14’s so the Iranians could not steal and export the parts!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

In the Navy, they really hammered the point that there is not any one ship that can carry out every mission of the Navy, that is why there are so many different kinds of ship. Same with aircraft, no single type can do every mission. The Navy is stupidly trying to have the F-18 do everything. As a result, it does a lot of missions that it was shoe-horned into and specializes in nothing.

The F-18 is pretty respectable in doing what it was designed to do. But being an electronic warfare platform, buddy refueler, close air support, and long-range high-speed interceptor are not what it was designed for and it won’t do well no matter how hard you force it. The Air Force knows this and that’s why the F-15, F-16, A-10, and the E-series of jets are still running. The F-16 can’t do everything, and, as an example, the Air Force learned some hard lessons when deciding that the A-10 could be replaced by putting a 30mm gun pod on an F-16. NAVAIR is not being smart on this.