Talk:North American Aerospace Defense Command/@comment-24787182-20150628021515/@comment-27797576-20150704142155

Boony, just a little correction here, the F-35 has a longer range than the Tomcat in combat radius and flight time. The tomcat was designed to be an interceptor, which means it's actually not that good in a straight up dog fight. The tomcat was designed to intercept missiles and enemy aircraft heading for a carrier, their dog fighting abilities were limited as a result, and why it had such a high speed in the first place. It also means it's no good heading into enemy territory, where the enemy has the trump card. It's one of the VERY reasons that the F-14 was replaced with the F/A-18, as the F-14 was an ageing design, interceptors were practically obsolete(you don't see any in use IRL, do you? Also, F22 is not an interceptor), as advances in carrier defences made having an interceptor practically useless, and quite frankly, the tomcat has poor manevearibly and horrid fuel consumption(it'll burn out of fuel in about a couple hundred miles with afterburner). And it's not worth it to reuse it as a bomber, as it'll just get shot out of the sky the moment it flys into enemy territory, which is why the F-35 is better in RP. And as for IRL, the whole concept of an interceptor is obsolete, and the tomcat simply does not fit into the navies, much less any other branch's, arsenal or plans. Dog fighting is now much higher on the list than intercepting, and the tomcat can't really dog fight, but the F-35 can beat almost everything in a dog fight, except the F-22(of course), and the T-50.