i should say that this was told to me by my brother-in-law, Bill Stiles who was chife engineer for stablity and controll for the f-14. he was the man who designed the f-14 and worked on it form the first piece of paper right to the day it was retired. Bill told me that he had a new "baby" tom cat designed that would totally out preform the 18 but the navy wanted the far inferior 18. like he said,,some one in the navy was bought out big time. the 18 is like going back to prop power whaen comparwd to the f-14.