John Carrier wrote:
Yep. Chump change and the aircraft could have had a vastly superior
weapon
than Sparrow for a decade. Also better than Phoenix out to AAMRAM's max
range as well. In hindsight it didn't matter ... largely because the
aircraft was underutilized in Desert Storm, its last opportunity to fight
the good fight.


Typhoon502 wrote:
Maybe the changes were small in scale, but if the service is unwilling
to do the integration, then that still means the F-14 was wholly
incapable of using the DOD's best AAM;

But could easily have been modded to use it... what don't you understand
about that? In hindsight, probably a good choice anyway, as the capability
was not needed--or at least, not particularly missed.


the fact that the Navy didn't
incorporate AMRAAM while they were doing the Bombcat work is what's
surprising.

I can't help suspect political pressure to keep the Bug looking good.
I always thought the Bombcat thing was at least partly a sop to the fighter
guys who didn't have so much to do, as well as a way for the Navy to get
more iron on the target without buying more airframes.


I read once a discussion or article about the F-14 and the
Super Hornet and how Grumman kept coming back to the Pentagon with
modernized Tomcats, and kept getting shown the door. At what point did
the Pentagon (or the Navy specifically...it's been a while since I
recalled the particulars) really decide that they didn't want the
Tomcats around? Was it cost & complexity that turned them against the
F-14 in favor of the Super Bug?

Maintenance man-hours per flight hour.


Jeff