The Navy is retiring its F-14D Tomcats in favor of the F/A-18E. Two strike fighter squadrons from NAS Oceana, Va., returned to base last week after completing a six-month deployment aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. It was the last for the Tomcats. Navy officials said that decommissioning the Tomcats will reduce the maintenance workload for its sailors. Tomcats required about four times the man-hours per flight hour than the newer Super Hornet.
The Air Force plans to conduct more intensive training—and Congress is set to help by boosting funding for exercises and so-called “campaigning” by hundreds of millions of dollars, particularly in the Pacific.
