Zephyr Net

Well they did test out the AIM-120 and the AGM-88 on the F-14 but unfortunately it was too costly. If it wasn't so costly to upgrade the whole fleet to AIM-120 capability I think she'd survive a lot longer because after all, the AIM-120C-9 that'll be out will seriously kick ass. I can just imagine it's range, it'll prob. be equal to that of the BVRAAM which is quoted somewhere in the 80 nautical mile range.

But you need to look at one thing. Most combat is definitely not in BVR ranges because of ROE so you want something that's pretty agile. Yes the Super Hornet can pull 9 g's without a doubt and she is a much more agile aircraft but for a big ass beast that F-14 ain't no brick! She can pull 7.33 and remember the sweeping wings do help it immensely. That sucker can really kick ass in a dogfight.

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Centurian

Kap... "A-7 may have come later than F-14 not sure"
A7A/B served in Nam... They were active in the late 1960s so they were definately older then the Tomkitties...

Cent... The mux data bus in the F-14 A thru D was totally incompatible with the AMRAAM. Thus the entire data handling system of the tomcat would ahve to be changed to allow it to carry the AIM-120. Also this would not have extended its life, since the Phoenix is still thought of, by the Navy, as a much more effective BVR weapon then the slammer...

The Tomcats are showing their age and its simply a cost factor...

Also The F-18E/F is not a 9G capable aircraft. It is limited to +8Gs...

CrazyIvan, the reason the F-14 was not optimized for strike and was never thought of as a possible strike asset was the threat facing the fleet. The USSR wiht its Naval backfire and Badger force heavily laden with long range high speed antiship missiles was the biggest threat the USN ever faced. You simply could not take your Fleet Defense fighter and risk it in a bombing role when at any moment the Carrier Taskforce could come under Russian missile attack.

That threat no longer exists, thus the F-14 no longer had a mission. Adapting it to Strke AFTER this point is the reason its still flying at all. It miantainability is low and the costs are enormous... That is something that is always overlooked over at ACIG...

That threat always exists, you know it and I know it just Congress doesn't seem to know it. The A-7E served in NAM too right? I know the D did but that was USAF. And yes why is the F-18E/F only 8G when the 15 can pull 9 and it's a lot bigger.

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Centurian

Actually I am only guessing here, but I believe it is a limitation of the FCS to avoid loss of lift, and its limitaitons of its performance envelope. Remember the FBW limitations are imposed to keep the aircraft from departing from controlled flight...

However I am uncertain if the SH can be manually forced to 9Gs by overriding the FCS. It may not have the necessary power or structural design to reach this G. I think it is the same with the standard F-18C, while the C+ seems to be able to reach this level of performance quite easily...

Well as to the threat... I honestly do not beleive the Russians have been able to maintain a credible force of Backfires to present much of a threat today. They no longer have the TU-16 Badgers and the Bear is just to slow and has way to large a RCS from the turboprops to pose any kind of real threat...

Remember that nearly all the bombers that were in the Ukraine became part of that countries airforce and then the majority of these were destroyed in a program funded by the US with incentives going directly to the Ukranians...

I've been told the SuperHornet has the same 7.5 G limit as Hornet, and this was "spec'd out" as much to save $$ as anything else. If it CAN pull more Gs the pilots WILL pull more Gs in combat and (more importantly from a $$ standpoint ) in training. Every high G manuever takes time off the airframe and I believe if you go past a certain G level (it all gets recorded) the crew have to pull extra maintenence to check this or that for cracks or things, it all adds up and the Navy has some seriouse money trouble these days.

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

China flies the H-6 Badger with anti-ship cruise missiles and one day those will be equal to that of Ruskie Kitchen's & Kingfishes.

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Centurian

Tell that to CVN-21 which will have lasers installed .

Zephyr

You know what they can do with that new CV-X project? Shove it up their ass. Let's keep the damn design of the Nimitz class and just make them bigger, faster, more armored, and with more aircraft. We need to return to a Cold War level military again!

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Centurian

We just need to start one massive military buildup, and never stop building.

Think about it- we could double our amount of tanks, have enough uniforms for our troops (remember the lack of Desert unis in Iraqi Freedom?), churn out many more guns, build more ships, build more planes, more cruise missiles, more smart bombs, etc.

We could double the strength of our military and our forces wouldn't be so stretched.

But that would cost a lot of money, and we'd probably lose our tax cut , but it'd be worth it.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

good luck "doubling" the number of volunteers that arnt in prison lolol

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

Nah we had it in the 80s and pre-Gulf War and it was volunteer.

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Centurian

You know- if we're going to start using un-manned machines and robots that can think for themselves, then why don't we just clone a massive army? Build a giant assembly line, with clones coming down them every second, machines injecting a massive dose of steroids into them, and machines slapping an American flag onto their arm.

We could quadruple the U.S. military in a matter of days. Couple that with my proposed build up, and we could take over the world easily.

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allah no longer exists, for I have killed him. You must worship me instead.

the new jammers are coming into better focus now. the new hornet will be the EA-18G Growler (no E/A slash thing) they are laying off newer weapons like the JASSM and JSOW till later but it will debut with the new Quickbolt AARGM missle capability. They are considering taking F/A-18Fs and adding some jamming capability to take up slack for the rapidly deterioirating Prowler fleet until the Growler is ready.

Looks like the EB-52 is going to be a reality. It will have at leaste 4 jamm pods on the wing, but will still reatain it's FULL weapons capability, 8 ALCM in the bomb bay and the wing pylons will stay as they are and be able to carry 6 JASSM per wing. With something THIS big hunting SAMs I think we'll have to call it "Wild Wolverine" rather than weasle lol

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.

LOL Imagine how many HARMs they can fit in the bay?

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Centurian

not that many, remember it has giant fins. HOPEFULLY the AARGM Quickbolt program will give it a different airframe, an AMRAAM or Mica style so that it can be carried in multiple like Alarm. But I'm afraid we'll get the old HARM frame

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Fighting for justice with brains of steel

Let your anger be like the monkey which hides inside the piniata.