Why was the F-14 retired?

In my opinion, I believe that the F-14 should not have been retired for at least a couple of years. I also think that the F-15 will follow in it's footsteps. We have to face the facts, the greatest fighters of the USAF, are being fased out by the F/A-22 Raptor, F-35 JSF, F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Tell me what you think about this topic.

Time moves on,
The F-14 and F-15 were upgraded as far as they could be and are now becoming obsolete. As sad as it is to let them go, it’s now time for the next generation to step up and take their place.
The F/A-22 Raptor, F-35 JSF, F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet are superior combat jets.

I agree with you, but we can't admit that they are still the greatest jets in the world. Let me ask you this, are they all going to be sold to other countries that are in need of military aircraft.

I can’t say for certain, but I suspect that some would be sold off, some may go to the Air national guard.

The primary role of the F-14 was to carry the AIM-54 Pheonix missile. Once the Pheonix was retired, the F-14 became a bigger version of the F-18. It was also getting older, and developing airframe issues brought on by the stress of landing and taking off from carriers.

As for selling them off to other countries, it won't happen. They're going to want to buy newer airframes, like the F-18 or F-16, which are the two biggest sellers to foreign militaries.

You also won't see them in the Air National Guard. The only place you'll see them is in the storage facility in the Arizona desert.

[edit on 4/6/2007 by Zaphod58]

The F-14 Tomcat was a naval carrier version of a F-111. It was an escort fighter, a bomber, and a long range strike fighter. I still think that the F-14 will be sold to other countries, I not sure if all of the remaining aircraft will be stored away.

The F-14 is a really old figter a/c and design. The cost of keeping them flying etc. would have crippled the Navy. Not to mention there were issues with the longevity of the AIM-54 missiles as well, and fatigue issues with the airframe as well as the wing pivot joints.

The F-22 and F-35 will never be procured in amounts enough to take over from the F-15 completly. With the AESA radar, it should remain quite lethal in the BVR arena as well as cruise missile defence.

In complete agreeance with Fred about the F-15 still serving for a godd number of years still. Maybe it will be the next F-4 airframe that just wont die?

As for the F-14's being sold it happened once and it wont ever happen again. The machine thats are reired now that aren't going into meausems will be in the desert until they are scrapped. The US has no desire to give any other country and interceptor like the 14. Not that the F-22 couldn't take it down, its just better to be safe then sorry I think.

The problem with the F-14 is.... that its just not a great airplane anymore. Its main role (intercepting bomber fleets) is obsolete for 15 years now. Its main weapon is phased out. They are incredibly maintenance heavy and actually too complicated to operate as a frontline fighter anymore. The bombing capability was more of a joke compared to a dedicated strike- or multirole aircraft. The F-14 is a beauty, but nevertheless a technical dinosaur.

And that is also the reason why noone will want to buy it: for any nation that could afford to operate them, there are vastly superior and more flexible platforms, new or used, right there on the market. And those that cant sustain them... well obviously they won´t be interested in the worn-out airframes in the first place.

The F-14 Tomcat is a great fighter. I will admit that it is falling apart, but it is a classic. It would cost a lot of money to upgrade the jet, but the point is that it can still be upgrade to a certain point. I think that it should be retiered, but in about 2 years to get the F/A-18 force fully operational on all aircraft carriers.

That does not make any sense, first it would take quite a while to "upgrade" the F-14 (weapons/avionics/airframe) fleet at which point you have drained money from other navy project (Super Hornet). And ar the end you're still left with a maintenance heavy and worn out airframe which is still nferior in some respect to the Block II/III Hornet. At which point you're going to retire this upgraded F-14 within two years and go back to the now bankrupt and behind schedule Super Hornet program?

The Navy already has an all Hornet fleet, what they are doing is fazing out some of the older Hornets with the E/F version. In time they will retire all the older versions and replace them with the F-35C as well as update the E/F to the Block III standard.

[edit on 6-4-2007 by WestPoint23]

The F-18 force has been fully operational for YEARS on the carriers. They're swapping their C/Ds for E/Fs, but they've been flying Hornets since before GW1.

I know that it has been operational in the Navy, but will the EA-18G take place of the EA-6B? I think that it has not been fully integrated into the Navy.

That does not really have anything to do with the F-14, the EA-18G has not been introduced yet (2009) but the Prowler has not been retired yet either so...

The EA was just designed a couple of years ago. It either just made, or soon will make its first flight. It came about because of the age of the Prowler fleet.

But will the EA-18G replace the EA-6B?

That is the entire purpose of the EA-18. To replace the EA-6.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
That is the entire purpose of the EA-18. To replace the EA-6.

What some people aren't aware of is the fact that the EA-6 was suppose to be carrier use almost only but now is shipped in for almost any war game even if the navy isn't a part of it as the need for the ECM plateform is huge and the USAF lost most of its capability with the F-111 Raven reitred and they are also some of the force for this push for the Growler/Rhino. The Groler will fill the Navys role as well as the UASF's for the next number of years when it is operational in 09.

Yeah, getting rid of the Raven made sense from a maintenance standpoint but to not even have anything on the boards when they did was insanely stupid. There WAS going to be a stand off jamming B-52, but they killed that along with many projects to get a few more F-22s out of the budget.

I remeber hearing about the stand off B-52 idea and cancellation on air-attack in the past year wasn't it? either way your right the ECM platform has been the most lacking platefrom for the USAF scince there is a need for it. I'd say even more so then the new KC-X programe.

Its sucks that the B-52 jammers where cut out but I do see the need too for more F-22's as the order has been cut so much already due to tight budgets and the iraq war.

[edit on 22/08/06 by Canada_EH]