by DAVID AXE
Ever since retiring its last Grumman F-14 fighter in 2006, the U.S. Navy has been at a range disadvantage in the air.
Without the F-14’s long legs (a 500-mile unrefueled combat radius) and long reach (AIM-54 air-to-air missile ranging 90 miles) the U.S. fleet’s aircraft carriers could struggle to engage Russian and Chinese bombers and their long range anti-ship cruise missiles at an acceptable distance from the carriers. The fleet’s Boeing F/A-18 Hornets (350-mile combat radius) and their AIM-120 missiles (75-mile range) simply lack the range.
Twenty years later, that’s set to change. In September, the Pentagon belatedly—after a long delay—announced that Boeing will build the U.S. fleet’s new F/A-XX fighter, a manned successor to the company F/A-18 that, armed with a bevy of new long-range air-to-air missiles, promises to restore the air defense reach the fleet lost along with the F-14, the only operational fighter that was ever compatible with the bulky AIM-54.
