On 4 Maj, 05:38, "rstro" wrote:
tell that to the carrier group when Chinese cruise missles are coming over
the horizon-- remember the Super Bug's AESA radar still is not working
properly--so......are you tell me a Super Bug with non ASEA radar and
AMRAAMS can handle that--oh--let's make that single seater F-18E .....
are there any drivers who have handled both the F-14D and Super Bug--what's
your view???

Certainly not a driver of any plane mentioned, but some observations
of mine:
1) Correct - AESA radar may surely be apt to show some deficiencies at
this phase of its introduction. Therefore I belive alternative FLIR/
IRST systems must still be developed.
2) I don't think AIM-54 would be a better solution against balistic or
cruise missiles than newest models of AIM-120, not so speedy, but more
agile, more modern, and you could take more of them with not making
your plane flying like a brick with 5,000 pounds of air-to-air
ordnance.
3) Certainly two-seaters are more capable than single-seat fighters,
but I guess you could find some guys with a lot of experience from
F-14 days in those F/A-18Es;-)
4) Recent years the number of AEGIS ships per a carrier group doubled,
Standard and TBMD programs were run, whereas the size of the air wing
was reduced - so the entire philosophy of defending the Boat must be
different...