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ID: wdxvx8a+/qst/6253377#6254535
6/8/2025, 1:52:09 AM
>>6254248
>Are the Tomcat-Es based off the ST-21s?
More or less. After the political failure of the A-12 program but in a time of high tensions and expanding Soviet naval capabilities, the Navy was able to put through a full replacement program for the F-14 through Congress (which by design has 0% parts compatibility with the A through D models just to make sure the Iranians couldn't get their hands on any spares). It comes with integral FLIR, airframe-integrated Sniper Pods for laser designating, greatly improved engines permitting supercruise, substantial weight reductions allowing for greater internal fuel capacity, the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, a large-aperature AN/APG-64 AESA radar, and improved datalinking - essentially a new fighter built with technologies that were mature by the mid-1990s, much as would be the later Super Hornet, and Enterprise's would be roughly up-to-date with other 4th-gen fighters ca. 2012. The AIM-54D Delta Phoenix is likewise a wholly new missile sharing only a name and rough outer dimensions with the old, a two-stage design made to hit manoeuvring targets at ranges of well over 100 nautical miles, with both a robust home-on-jam capability and a data-linked semi-active guidance mode so it can be cued by Aegis or AWACS aircraft. The two together were built serve the same mission as always - kill airborne threats from as far away from the CSG as possible.
>Does Long Beach have her Strike Cruiser style AEGIS refit? And does Bainbridge have anything different to her IRL fit?
All nine of the US' nuclear cruisers were rebuilt nearly from the waterline up in the mid-90s with the full VLS Aegis suite and both towed and bow sonar arrays, along with some other changes like reactor overhauls for greater power output. However, they completed their overhauls just as the USSR ash-heap-of-history'd itself, and Long Beach and Bainbridge were retired in 2001 and 2003 respectively, and hence missed out on ballistic missile defence with the SM-3 and -6, and the various cumulative effects of the last twenty-odd years of Moore's Law on sensors, processors, and EW. They currently carry the SM-2-III, TLAM, and VLASROC, along with eight Harpoons apiece.
>Are the Tomcat-Es based off the ST-21s?
More or less. After the political failure of the A-12 program but in a time of high tensions and expanding Soviet naval capabilities, the Navy was able to put through a full replacement program for the F-14 through Congress (which by design has 0% parts compatibility with the A through D models just to make sure the Iranians couldn't get their hands on any spares). It comes with integral FLIR, airframe-integrated Sniper Pods for laser designating, greatly improved engines permitting supercruise, substantial weight reductions allowing for greater internal fuel capacity, the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System, a large-aperature AN/APG-64 AESA radar, and improved datalinking - essentially a new fighter built with technologies that were mature by the mid-1990s, much as would be the later Super Hornet, and Enterprise's would be roughly up-to-date with other 4th-gen fighters ca. 2012. The AIM-54D Delta Phoenix is likewise a wholly new missile sharing only a name and rough outer dimensions with the old, a two-stage design made to hit manoeuvring targets at ranges of well over 100 nautical miles, with both a robust home-on-jam capability and a data-linked semi-active guidance mode so it can be cued by Aegis or AWACS aircraft. The two together were built serve the same mission as always - kill airborne threats from as far away from the CSG as possible.
>Does Long Beach have her Strike Cruiser style AEGIS refit? And does Bainbridge have anything different to her IRL fit?
All nine of the US' nuclear cruisers were rebuilt nearly from the waterline up in the mid-90s with the full VLS Aegis suite and both towed and bow sonar arrays, along with some other changes like reactor overhauls for greater power output. However, they completed their overhauls just as the USSR ash-heap-of-history'd itself, and Long Beach and Bainbridge were retired in 2001 and 2003 respectively, and hence missed out on ballistic missile defence with the SM-3 and -6, and the various cumulative effects of the last twenty-odd years of Moore's Law on sensors, processors, and EW. They currently carry the SM-2-III, TLAM, and VLASROC, along with eight Harpoons apiece.
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