From the article:
"The F-14 was designed to provide air superiority over Soviet fighters in dogfights staged in defense of U.S. aircraft carriers. Thus, it did not transition well to other roles, such as the precision bombing called for in Iraq. "
Sheesh....
The guy who wrote the article (LAURENT L.N. BONCZIJK) apparently didn't do any fact checking....blatant errors include:
1) The Navy...has decided to instead dispatch the carrier to the Middle East with its current squadron of F-14s - including the one promised to the museum.
TR is doing Fleet CQ as planned and a phone call to CHINFO could have confirmed that fact.
2) Last used in the bombing of targets in Iraq in October....
TR didn't get to theatre until then and the last F-14 combat mission was completed on February 8, 2006, when a pair of Tomcats landed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) after one dropped a bomb in Iraq. The plane was part of VF-31 and the last pilot credited with a bomb drop in combat was Lt. Bill Frank. An F-14D from VF-213 was the last F-14 to land on an aircraft carrier after a combat mission, it was piloted by Capt. William G. Sizemore. These facts are in news releases accessible to anyone and google will do all the work for you at light speed.
3)The F-14 was designed to provide air superiority over Soviet fighters in dogfights staged in defense of U.S. aircraft carriers. Thus, it did not transition well to other roles, such as the precision bombing called for in Iraq.
An disgruntled USAF driver must have told hm that because even Hornet drivers acknowledge Tomcat precision strike performance. The F-14 was designed Fleet Air Defense against threat of Soviet bombers and their deadly cruise missiles hence its large size due to large radar and Phoenix Missile system. Nobody ever envisioned "dogfights" in defense of the aircraft carrier. But, more importantly, the transition of the Tomcat to take on the tactical photo reconnaissance role of the RF-8 and RA-5 dedicated Recce assets gave the Tomcat its first sustained baptism of fire. The next transition was that of not only as a precision strike aircraft, but as a Forward Air Controller, Airborne (FAC (A)). The Tomcat transitioned into this role in less than 200 days of first demo of the LANTIRN targeting system on a Oceana Tomcat in 1995. It went on not only to become a valuable precision strike asset, but a Tomcat squadron won the prestigious Admiral McClusky award for its superlative strike performance over Kosovo. The runner-up, another Tomcat squadron. The Tomcat was the precision strike platform of choice in Kosovo, OSW, ONW, OEF and OIF, period.
4) VF-31 is one of only two squadrons in the U.S. Navy still flying Tomcats. The Navy, which began taking delivery on them in the early 1970s, has been steadily swapping them out of its carrier-based squadrons in favor of the more versatile Hornets.
There is only one Tomcat squadron in operation in the US Navy (Iran still operates an unknown number) since VF-213 turned in their Tomcats upon return to the states in March. Furthermore, all Tomcat squadrons that are transitioning have been transitioning to the F/A-18E or F model Super Hornet, which is a totally different aircraft than the basic "Hornet".
Glad I got that off my chest...think I'll blast this to the managing editor of the NewsRegister.com as well. This single bit of erronous reporting has set off waves of rumors and emails and posts.....the folks in in McMinnville, Oregon may not care what he feeds them, but it's about time the press started getting responsible about the impact of their reporting...that will be the day, huh?:icon_rage
