[MFAFF]

Seahawk..

The F-18 book is great.. so is James Stevenson's 'The $5billion Misunderstanding' The Collapse of the Navy's A-12 Stealth Bomber Program.

The sheer scale of the smoke and mirrors and the quantum of money is almost unbelievable.. but it happened.

Snipe..
The F-14 was doomed even before the first metal was cut in terms of the DoD... as the "Revolt of the Admirals" lead by Adm. Tom Connelley (hence Tomcat) made sure the civilians would always ensure it sucked hind tit in the DoD regardless of its actual performance...this was followed up by Grumman basically blackmailing NavAir when the fixed cost contract it had signed revealed it would go broke despite delivering on time and to spec.....the final nail in its coffin was the TF30 engine. Had the original B version been introduced when it was first flown then it would have perhaps survived and be the Navy equivalent of the Eagle.

The F14A+, B and D versions were post scripts to the program that was already mortally wounded, not by its technical prowess but by McDD' s political work in the back ground and Grumman's slightly high handed approach. The Strike Tomcat was a really low risk option to replace the A-12 when that died.. much lower risk than the F-18E, as pretty much all of the avionics had already flown with the F-15E and the aero configuration was tried and tested.. there was already a much improved FCS system waiting in the wings....but no... McDD ably used its influence and Grumman failed to see the danger...we'll not even talk about the Tomcat 21 which was to be procured as a follow on...

Read Tomcat! by Rear Adm Gillcrist to get a good view... Stevenson's 70s haiography of the F-14 is also an interesting period view of this 'super fighter', its now pretty embarassing to read, but at the time (1975) it was the 'word'...