>>507280002
>At this time, we have a lot of "multirole" A/C, but they need a huge organisation/support to operate accordingly, ie needing a other aircraft aloft in support, wether for radar, air defense or other types
Yeah, but even then they are mostly variants for already existing craft, so a lot of mainteneance knowledge, spares is still shared, even then it's easier to have 1 multirole that does bombing/penetration/interception/dogfighting supported by an AWACS than fielding multiple for each and still neede reco on top of that, then you have to factor in time and mainteneance difficulty, during wartime it's easier to jug around just one set of tools and material to fix 1 type of aircraft, have 1 set of mechanics that know every bit of the airframe rather than have to specialize then because you're fielding 2-3 different aircraft, it's just more efficient even if 10-15% possible performance is lost you gain immensely in other ways
>Mc Namara
US Secretary of Defense, big fan of the F-111 and hated the Tomcat from it's inception, he's the reason the original 14A had the TF-30 engines from the F-111B, there's lots of stories about him being a dick to aviation companies, ultimately though it was Cheney, one of his successors to fuck up the Tomcat completely and write off the Advanced Tomcat plans to focus on the Hornet/Super