That’s not really wrong though. Sharing components increases efficiency in those cases.
Sorry. The “Oh Boy” was meant to convey that I can already hear the Viper lovers among us putting on their smug grins while the Eagle drivers get their angst up 
I like the Eagle and the Viper but I also like the The Fighter Mafia.
Looks like they’re getting serious about this. The F-16 is one hell of an airplane, but it remains to be seen if it can fill the role of interceptor.
That’s interesting and a heck of a long time. Methinks it smacks of F-16 Mafia. It is also puzzling when you consider that the F-35 is now coming into its own and is a vastly superior aircraft. Of course, being new, F-35 pilots haven’t had time to build their own Mafia…yet.
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G’dammit, if they can extend the f16 to 2048, think what they could have done with the f111 !!!
Oy vey…with the swing wings…
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I really think it’s because it’s relatively cheap to do. There’s already so many hour on 30 year old airframes abroad so they know exactly how to expand service life tremendously. Add to that the early desert storage for many of the F-16’ and you’ve got a cheap easily upgradable supply of fighter jets as a stop gap solution.
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“There isn’t enough thrust in Christendom to fix this plane.”, Admiral Thomas Connolly answering Senator Stennis (Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee) on the suitably of the Navy version of the F-111.
Admiral Connolly went on to direct the F-14 program as the replacement for the Navy F-111. The F-14 was named the “Tomcat” in his honor…although you won’t find that in his official Navy biography.
…and now you know the rest of the story. 
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It would have gone through the ramp on landing, the thing was so immense. And slow.
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Plus with that cockpit capsule ejection system, there would have been no way to kill off Goose in Topgun…talk about your plot complications…
Mrs Goose (Meg Ryan) - “He loved flying with you Maverick…he would have flown without you but he wouldn’t have loved it.”
Goose - “I’m right here…I’m in the room…I’m not dead!!!”
Maverick - “Awkward…”
Just say’n
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I mean, in reality when it happened, the RIO only broke a leg (or was it an arm). Those heal, eventually.
Besides, Goose was narrative expendable. How else would Mav become emotionally available enough to pursue his budding romance with Iceman?
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GREAT BALLS OF FIRE…! I had not thought of that plot twist (because I’m a normal person).
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That’s a bold thing to say for the head of this Cage aux Folles. 
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I think it’s more like a rudderless ghost ship. You never know what reef we might dash up on…
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I did some research and it turns out there was one F-111B that went to carrier trials. It successfully completed catapult takeoffs and arrested landings, but the aircrews were terrified of landings in it because it was so unresponsive at low speeds and they couldn’t see the deck. It would have been a nightmare.
Think about it, the A-5 Vigie was about as big and 10,000 pounds lighter when empty.
The first approach is terrifying just from the air boss’ station. You gain an appreciation of just how massive it was.
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It also crashed shortly thereafter.
It’s saying something that the F-14 was the light weight alternative to the F-111B.
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At 2+00 into that video…when the F-111 goes into burner…you can see the whole carrier increase speed by 5 knots…
That really is some terrifying footage. Was that F-111 Navy owned and flown? I can’t tell from the markings…edit…actually at 7:00 you can see NAVY written on the fuselage…
Looked like it needed some lubricant to make it down that elevator deck cutout…LOL
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But what a sexy plane eh…
All jokes aside, and though its not the best naval aircraft, it fulfilled a niche role. Long range supersonic, its ethos was perfect for places like Australia. Its a shame it wasn’t upgraded and supported.
There was a huge kerfuffle when it was replaced, that the legacy hornet had no where near the range, and the gaps that represented on the Australian coastline.
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The tragedy of it is the Navy utterly obliterated the F-111 project. The Navy wanted a missile truck, the Air Force wanted a thin (relatively) light, high speed fighter-bomber with intercontinental range and rough field capability. MacNamara smooshed the two projects together because the success of the previous F-4 project (which just happened to work because the USN and USAF happened to have a requirement for the same role).
The Navy never wanted any part of F-111, and was never convinced that the Air Force concept could operate safely from a carrier (they were proven right). Everything done to fulfill the Navy requirement came at the cost of the Air Force aircraft (wide nose for the AWG-9, structural reinforcement, short body to fit on carrier elevators), and even then the resulting aircraft was clearly unacceptable. The Navy bailed, and the Air Force was left to soldier on with what was left: a jet that did not resemble what either branch wanted.
This could have been solved by say, acquiring two related, but separate air frames (like say, F-35A/B/C), but MacNamarra was adamant about MAXIMUM COMMONALITY, to the point he overrode the defense selection panel in charge of the F-111 contract to nullify it’s choice (a pair of closely related aircraft built by Boeing), and select the paper aircraft proposed by General-Dynamics because it would be one aircraft.
It’s real easy to want to deck MacNamarra in the face, and by deck I mean kick, and by face I mean the balls.
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