ISN Security Watch October 03, 2006
F-14 fighter flies into the sunset
Fans of the Tomcat fighter say 'goodbye' to the popular aircraft, while others say 'good riddance.'
By Carmen Gentile
The US Navy has retired a venerable warhorse of aerial combat, revered by some as the defining aircraft of the country's role in the Cold War and reviled by others as an aging relic.
With much fanfare and a ceremony befitting an honored veteran, the F-14 Tomcat was retired on 22 September following the final flight of the warplane out of Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia.
In a twist of fate exemplifying why it had been grounded after more than 30 years in service, the plane scheduled to make the last flight of F-14 remained on the tarmac due to technical difficulties. A standby Tomcat - on deck for just such an emergency - took to the skies for the 3,000 onlookers in attendance.
The failure was "a common occurrence with the F-14," Navy spokesman Mike Maus told reporters on hand for the ceremony.
That did not stop naval officials from singing the plane's praises.
"There's something about the way an F-14 looks, something about the way it carries itself," said Admiral Michael Mullen, chief of naval operations. "It screams toughness. Look down on a carrier flight deck and see one of them sitting there, and you just know, there's a fighter plane."
In addition to the commemorative flight, a memorial to the Tomcat was unveiled at the base. “We thank our countrymen who put this airplane together, who manufactured it, who built it and who operated it around the globe for 36 years," said retired Rear Adm Fred Lewis. "It’s to them that we dedicate the monument today and to the memory of those air crewman who lost their lives in that magnificent Tomcat during that 36 years in service to their country."
Mullen echoed Lewis' sentiments, saying the plane would be remembered as more than just another weapon of war.
"I really believe the Tomcat will be remembered in much the same way as other legendary aircraft, like the Corsair, the Mustang and the Spitfire," said the admiral.
Not everyone is an F-14 fan
Placing the F-14 among the pantheon of planes made famous in World War II and the Korean conflict is high praise for an aircraft that also has its share of critics.
Specifically created to outflank the Soviet Union in the skies, a total of 712 Tomcats were built. Though the Navy boasted the plane's impressive record against enemy fighters, it was considered by some to be flawed from its inception.
"The F-14 was a big, heavy, sluggish plane," Winslow Wheeler, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information in Washington, told ISN Security Watch, adding that the plane's rising maintenance costs were what finally led to the Tomcat's decommissioning after years of service.
Efforts by ISN Security Watch to contact the US Navy about the plane's checkered past regarding upkeep were unsuccessful.
Navy officials have touted its replacement, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, as more reliable and cheaper to maintain than the F-14. "Most F-14 pilots that then flew a F/A-18 think they've died and gone to heaven," said Wheeler.
According to John E Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, the F-14 was susceptible to wear and tear unlike other planes in the Navy's fleet. "Think of all things that would diminish the lifespan of a plane and the Tomcat had them all," Pike told ISN Security Watch, noting the plane's tendency to corrode from flying over open seas.
"Planes that fly over salt air would have lots of corrosion issues that a plane that flies over land would not," he said.
Pike did praise the plane's ability as a "pure-play inceptor" of enemy aircraft carrying large missile payloads, making it a vital part of the military's Cold War arsenal.
A change of fighting tactics
Although the military considers the F/A-18 an upgrade from the F-14, analysts like Pike and others consider the new craft to be a different species. "While the F-14 was an air-to-air combat plane [for engaging other fighter planes], the Hornet strikes a balance - it’s both and air-to-air and air-to-ground fighter," he said, noting the ability of the F/A-18 to also serve as a light bomber.
The military's move from a pure fighter to hybrid-style warplane illustrates the changing ways the US military does battle. In the global war on terror, the military does not engage its adversaries in the air.
"The good news is that in the wars we're fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the aircraft are irrelevant," Wheeler stated. In a war often fought house-to-house and in the streets, the days of taking an enemy to task in the skies is receding into memory.
Whither aerial warfare?
The Navy and other branches of the US military have a new generation of aircraft on deck in addition to the F/A-18. Among their ranks are the F-22, an advantageous aircraft because of the difficulty of spotting it on radar, and a yet-to-be-produced generation of unmanned stealth aircraft dubbed the Global Persistence Strike program - similar to the predator drone currently in use in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pilotless stealth vehicles are likely 12 years away from being flown over enemy skies, said weapons experts.
In the meantime, concerns abound over the future of the military's decision-making when it comes to approving new aircraft production. The F/A-18, for example, already has a single unit production cost that tops US$100 million, according to Wheeler, while the F-22 is considered too heavy, tipping the scales at over 30 tonnes.
"The future of US combat aviation is in serious trouble," he said, blaming lawmakers for approving the production of these and other aircraft like the stealth bombers, which he considers a passing "fad" no longer necessary in a low-tech terror war.
"The problem stops with officials on Capitol Hill who aren't well versed enough in aerial combat to know what the military really needs. "Somebody needs to start with oversight and that someone is Congress, but they've forgotten how to do it," said Wheeler.
If understanding modern terror warfare was a prerequisite for getting the right type of aircraft in the sky, the future of US combat aviation could be in real jeopardy, he said. "They need to understand the problem and Congress has done nothing to understand it."
Carmen Gentile is a senior international correspondent for ISN Security Watch. He has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan and Bolivia for ISN Security Watch, and Haiti, Venezuela and elsewhere for Newsweek, The Boston Globe, The Washington Times and others.
© Copyright 2006, Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich, Switzerland
