Quote:
Originally Posted by Homer
It might have made Goose turn in his grave, but the F-14 was a much better CAS/Strike platform than the legacy F-18. It had the same podded sensor capabilities as the hornet, can carry more practical weight further/stay on station longer, and most importantly came with two sets of eyes/ears/brains. That let the F-14 function as an airborne FAC for other strikes in addition to being a strike aircraft- having a FAC overhead takes some work off the guys in the ground in terms of airspace management and deconfliction.
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Yeah, but its logistical tail was much, much worse. The F-14 required 40 to 60 hours of maintenance for each flight hour, where the F-18 only needed 20 (and the F-18E only 10 to 15). Between that and operational costs (where the Super Hornet was 45-50% as expensive as the Tomcat), you could pretty much literally operate 2 F-18Es for the cost of 1 F-14. It can't do the FAC role as effectively, but now you've got more weight, two sets of sensors looking at things, two sets of eyes/ears/brains, and the ability to split that payload if it needs to go in multiple directions, for a lower per-hour cost and half the work for your ground crews.