your right about the Tomcat---can't understand what they were thinking-but
as I have said before---if that can keep alomst 50 year old B-52's
flying --they can certainly do it for the Tomcat.......



"Thomas J. Paladino Jr." wrote in message
.. .
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...ina/tu-22m.htm

Two part question; first, do you think that China will actually succeed in
it's acquisition attempts regarding the Backfire, and if so, how many
would
they end up with?

Second, what does this mean to the the US? Backfires are a viable threat
to
the carrier group, and with the F-14/Phoenix weapons systems getting
phased
out with no real comparable replacement, I can't help but think that the
US
carrier groups may find themselves in an uncomfortably vulnerable position
sometime in the near future. The F-14 and Phoenix missile were designed
specifically to counter the long range bomber threat, and when this threat
was thought to have disappeared, the AAAM (Phoenix replacement) and the
Super-Tomcat upgrades were cancelled.

Although there is basically no chance for the F-14 to be brought back to
life, should we now possibly be concerned with developing a new long-range
missile system for the F-18 and JSF, or do these aircraft already have the
capability to defeat the long-range bomber using stealth and smaller,
medium
range weapons?