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I just read this on cnn.com ... kinda sad.

Tomcats Shredded

I never liked the Tomcat. I think that there Tom 'I believe in UFO's' Cruise movie Top Gun irked me WAY too much, and made me hate the aircraft. They do have a beautiful one sitting off the highway by Damneck where some of the SEAL's train, and we shoot on the range. I forget which airbase is over there; the F/A-18's are always giving unintentional airshows while they do whatever they're doing. Now there is a beautiful aircraft.

Well I for one love the aircraft. Always have. Sorry to see this happen. But it is the way of things, I suppose.

The Tomcat is an awesome fighter aircraft. some of its features are still not equaled today...hence the reason for the shredding.

Hudson wrote: I forget which airbase is over there; the F/A-18's are always giving unintentional airshows while they do whatever they're doing. Now there is a beautiful aircraft.

I believe it's NAS Oceana - the east coast hornet home.

I am a big fan of the f18, specificlay the Canadian one lol. But the f14 is a sweet aircraft. now do note they will not shread them all, they usually keep a decent few around in moftballs. they have even f4 phantoms still that currently there in the desert. Tho they are now starting to use them as remote controled targets from what I gather. So the f14 will be here for a few years yet.

apparently they've already given the ones to museums and such, and are shredding all of them to keep the parts off the market - they were being "stolen" from the mothballed a/c -- that's WHY they're being shredded. Otherwise, they would just line them up in the desert like all the other a/c.

stolen, wait a min why would other aircraft there not have the same issue tho. that makes little sense.

because as steel said, there are parts of the tomcat that are still extremely sensitive. AND, the only people on the planet who still fly F-14s are the Iranians. Can we think of any reason that we'd want to prevent Iranians from having aircraft that can fire A-A missiles 110 miles at 6 independently tracked targets?

My understanding was they had a lower version then the Us had, IE not as advanced electronics. and also that they have not been able to fly them for many years. To fix them now would require a crap load of work. I am betting they would love to get them going but even they would need a LOT of parts to get them working. in all honesty tho, they don't have a airforce to be concerned with. Even if they got them working the Us would take them out FAST. I admit its still a threat, but its a unlikelay one unless they could canabilize a good few f14 . and my understanding of the boan yards is they are always people there working with security. Not perfect but someone working on a jet for many hours and not just garbing a part should get noticed.

and how many other nations have aircraft from aircraft stored there that an't getting scraped the same. The logic escapes me when looking at the overall picture. Now stoping the sale of parts is fine by me. But whiping them out instead of atleast lettign them be used as target drones or somthing usefull sucks. Even target drone it goes out in a blaze of glory.

Veg, did you read the article i posted?

Yep. 900,000 to destroy the aircraft. they may add on the remaining aircraft. tho nothing said iran actuality had working versions, just ones they got in the 70's that I have read an't worked in years. chineas and iran trying to buy parts, but in the end all they need is a copy of the part and the ability to make it. china could make parts easelay, iran not so sure.