From what I understand, and I'm not really super aircraft educated, F-14's were freaking huge which created some problems. You can fit a lot more F-18s on a carrier than F-14s

F-18s are smaller, faster and more maneuverable. I think it just made since to transition to the F-18 as the main fighter jet economically and strategically.

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Posted by Tigeralum2008

Yankees Fan

Member since Apr 2012

17150 posts

Posted on 3/9/17 at 9:28 am to Theboot32

quote:
F-18s are smaller, faster and more maneuverable. I think it just made since to transition to the F-18 as the main fighter jet economically and strategically.

They also had less range and couldn't carry the same armament.

When we initially went after the Taliban, the F-14D was the only Naval air asset that could hit the Haji's before our air refueling assets could be deployed in support

The F-14 was built as a Naval Air Superiority fighter much like the F-15. The F-18 is a multirole airframe like the F-16

If the Cold War was still on, I'd want an F-14 over the F-18 for the fact they had the AIM-54 Long Range missile that could dwindle the numbers of aggressor aircraft at a longer range than could be counterattacked.

This post was edited on 3/9/17 at 9:30 am

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Posted by bhtigerfan

Baton Rouge

Member since Sep 2008

29678 posts

Posted on 3/10/17 at 9:07 am to Theboot32

quote:
F-18s are smaller, faster and more maneuverable. I think it just made since to transition to the F-18 as the main fighter jet economically and strategically.

The F-14 was designed to carry six AIM-54 Phoenix missiles which were capable of shooting down enemy aircraft up to 80+ miles away. It was designed as an air superiority/fleet defense aircraft but was not designed to be a dogfighter. It was huge, expensive, and just outdated by the time the F/A-18 was introduced.

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