Super Hornet Block III

[Three Down and Locked]

Such a shame that the Tomcat wasn't redeveloped.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Such a shame that the Tomcat wasn't redeveloped.

We can call it the F-14 MAX

 

[///AMG]

Unfortunately that timing was never to be. I think it might have happened if the late 1980's had been a time of Soviet strength. But as it were, the A-6F was a hotter Grumman proposal, and the A-12 crushed both of them. It is a bit ironic I suppose that the Super Hornet rose from the ashes (and some of the development) of the A-12. Unfortunately I don't believe B3 will be delivered with conformals, and I can't remember the last time I heard anyone mention an F414 EPE (the "big motor" that currently lives on a drawing board or some test stand in the GE plant).

 

[Lawman]

Unfortunately that timing was never to be. I think it might have happened if the late 1980's had been a time of Soviet strength. But as it were, the A-6F was a hotter Grumman proposal, and the A-12 crushed both of them. It is a bit ironic I suppose that the Super Hornet rose from the ashes (and some of the development) of the A-12. Unfortunately I don't believe B3 will be delivered with conformals, and I can't remember the last time I heard anyone mention an F414 EPE (the "big motor" that currently lives on a drawing board or some test stand in the GE plant).

The fighter pilot podcast on the Tomcat would be eye opening for most of the Fanboi myth and legend surrounding that plane thanks to the movies.

Those guys flatly talked about the fact that even in its best incarnations the Tomcat was barely a 4th generation aircraft. The RIO they had on was talking about carrying a tool bag with him in the back full of cockpit FOD to get the thing to work. But it looked cool, it carried a buttload of gas compared to the smaller legacy Hornet, and it had raw drag racing power to go fast low which made you feel cool. They had no false assumptions though about the realities of what that thing would be up against if it had continued to fly, and even less good things to say about the Phoenix torpe… I mean.. missile… totally a missile. Except all the times guys dropped them and it didn’t light.

We look back on planes like that with the same nostalgia as old Muscle and Sports Cars of the 70s. But for whatever reason people get swallowed up by the nostalgia and start into some weird reality where a Boss 302 Mustang can be competitive with its modern contemporaries when in reality a factory Honda Accord would beat it around most tracks these days. Same thing with Airplanes. The Tomcat makes a bitchen poster on the wall of your teenager, but it’s time is loooong past over.


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[///AMG]

Yeah exactly. It looked awesome. I remember sitting at the base of the Miramar tower as a kid, watching them come into the break/pattern and thinking how much I wanted to do that one day. Years later I had a few department heads that had flown the thing as JOs. They universally said it had no BFM game anymore, and they were mostly just trying to survive. The D did have a pretty good radar for the time, and it could also bring a decent A/G weapons load to the fight for a long loiter time in a CAS scenario. But the bones were too old, too much retrofitting of modern avionics and other systems to be cost effective. I am probably biased, but the Super Hornet has done pretty well for itself in the last 20 years of combat ops. It's legs are a little shorter, and it isn't quite as fast, but we haven't really truly needed that in a long time. Maybe the times are changing though.....in which case the F/A-XX will be far superior to whatever incarnation of the Tomcat that they might have produced 25 years ago.

 

[Three Down and Locked]

I'm often amazed just how near-sighted our military top brass can be. There will always be a need for an air-superiority platform especially for fleet defense. I'd love to see them come out with a "Super Tomcat" aircraft to fill the gap until such time as they develop a 5th or 6th generation aircraft. By the same token The Russians are bringing back all of their old warplanes and modernizing them. The Navy was short sighted on not upgrading the F-14 to the Tomcat 21. Instead of putting it all into the mediocre F/A 18.

 

[Three Down and Locked]

Yeah exactly. It looked awesome. I remember sitting at the base of the Miramar tower as a kid, watching them come into the break/pattern and thinking how much I wanted to do that one day. Years later I had a few department heads that had flown the thing as JOs. They universally said it had no BFM game anymore, and they were mostly just trying to survive. The D did have a pretty good radar for the time, and it could also bring a decent A/G weapons load to the fight for a long loiter time in a CAS scenario. But the bones were too old, too much retrofitting of modern avionics and other systems to be cost effective. I am probably biased, but the Super Hornet has done pretty well for itself in the last 20 years of combat ops. It's legs are a little shorter, and it isn't quite as fast, but we haven't really truly needed that in a long time. Maybe the times are changing though.....in which case the F/A-XX will be far superior to whatever incarnation of the Tomcat that they might have produced 25 years ago.

Good analogy....

 

[Minuteman]

Block identifiers using roman numerals is shameful. Less shameful would be letters, more shameful would be emojis. Best of all is block numbers using arabic numerals.

Wait: was this video a sales pitch to RCAF? Do they not know how Canadian acquisitions programs work?! They're gonna end-up buying second-hand E/Fs from Australia a decade from now.

 

[Lawman]

Block identifiers using roman numerals is shameful. Less shameful would be letters, more shameful would be emojis. Best of all is block numbers using arabic numerals.

Wait: was this video a sales pitch to RCAF? Do they not know how Canadian acquisitions programs work?! They're gonna end-up buying second-hand E/Fs from Australia a decade from now.

They would have an operation squadron of F-35 right now if they hadn’t decided to go full stupid with the PM.

In the end they will end up paying more money for less capability, because somebody believes the crap they read or see on the internet.


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