F-14D Tomcat vs. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every aircraft that goes into service is accompanied by controversy. This was especially true for the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Super Hornet. With the long-anticipated Paramount Pictures movie sequel, Top Gun: Maverick coming out in June, we noted that in the original 1986 movie, Maverick was flying the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, but in the new sequel he is at the controls of the F-18 Super Hornet. So it made perfect sense to publish our classic feature "Battle of the Superfighters" as well as some of the passionate reader responses it generated.

In this comparison, our two experts argue that the Super Hornet was not necessarily the airplane the Navy needed for the future, and their backgrounds lend weight to their arguments. Rear Admiral Paul Gillcrist spent 33 years as a fighter pilot and wing commander and was operations commander of all Pacific Fleet fighters. Bob Kress was an aeronautical engineer, and during his long career at Grumman, he was directly involved in the development of a wide range of fighters. He was also the engineering manager for the original design and development of the F-14 Tomcat. Their analysis makes an interesting statement when placed against the backdrop of the current ongoing war on terrorism.

The requirements for a practical, deep interdiction fighter/bomber have long been the subject of controversy within the naval aviation community, especially when it comes to the F-14D Tomcat versus F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Often, however, the definition of “deep interdiction” is changed to fit the aircraft being discussed, rather than taking into account the real-world theater of operations for which it is destined.

As shown over Afghanistan, there were four basic requirements for any carrier strike force:

• Reach the target.

• Don’t get shot down by surfaceto-air missiles (SAMs), anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), or enemy fighters.

• Strike the target.

• Return to the carrier before running out of gas.

Within these four seemingly simple rules are the needs for an airplane to have a long range while carrying sufficient munitions to hammer a target, and still be able to fight its way through enemy aircraft and AAA threats.

Afghanistan Scenario

Because our government doesn’t tell us all of its secrets, we had to make some assumptions while using Afghanistan as an example. It is, however, obvious that reaching the target presents a great challenge. To avoid Silkworm missiles, the carrier battle group probably would not want to venture north of a line joining Masqat