PINOY HACK

The TopGun F-14 jet fighter was put to retirement due to maintenance issue. It will be replace by a cheaper to maintain the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

“There’s something about the way an F-14 looks, something about the way it carries itself,” says Adm. Michael Mullen, chief of naval operations, the Navy’s top officer. “It screams toughness. Look down on a carrier flight deck and see one of them sitting there, and you just know, there’s a fighter plane. I really believe the Tomcat will be remembered in much the same way as other legendary aircraft, like the Corsair, the Mustang and the Spitfire.”

F-14 Tomcat is a supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, variable geometry wing aircraft. During its active service in the United States Navy, the F-14 Tomcat was the Navy’s primary air superiority fighter and tactical reconnaissance platform. It later performed precision bombing in close air support roles. The F-14 Tomcat was created in response to the U.S. Navy VFX specification, following termination of the F-111B program. However, the F-14 was actually started even earlier as an internal Grumman project to build the 1966 requirement for a VFAX, a lighter and more agile fighter that would be a better fighter than the F-4 Phantom II and a better bomber than the A-7 Corsair II.

The F/A-18 was acquired as a result of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Fighter-Attack, Experimental (VFAX) program to procure a multirole aircraft to replace the F-4 Phantom II, A-4 Skyhawk, and A-7 Corsair II, and complement the F-14 Tomcat. Vice Admiral Kent Lee, then head of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), was the lead advocate for the VFAX against strong opposition from many Navy officers, including Vice Admiral William D. Houser, deputy chief of naval operations for air warfare - the highest ranking naval aviator.

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