Comments on: Top Gun lives on in the Nevada desert

Navy's best fighter pilots learn how to be successful combat pilots through rigorous training in the skies near Fallon.
Photos: Fight and flight

[Macaresafer]

Nice picture of an F14!

Of course, they don't use F14s anymore, and the Pentagon recently announced they were destroying mothballed F14s to keep Iran from getting spare parts on the black market.

Way to keep up with the times, Cnet.

[baldguy61]

F14s at Fallon

Sorry, Macaresafer, but F14s are still being used (among others)as aggressors at NAS Fallon, regardless of the Pentagon announcements you've read. While they are not being used in active squadrons, they do represent the adversaries our fleet pilots are likely to encounter. I live only about three miles from the base and see (and HEAR) them go over my house on departure every day starting just before 8AM. F14s and F18s make great alarm clocks!

[SiXiam]

No More Dog Fighting.... Sorry!

Sorry, but the dog fighting days are long over. Now you are going to fire a missle 50 miles away and still hit the plane.

I can't wait until pilots are a thing of the past and the robots lead the way...

[smilin:)]

Wrong

Most air-air kills are still done with short to medium range missles with ranges far less than 50 miles.

Armchair theories like that were what lead to such horrible design decisions like leaving the gun off the original F-4 in Vietnam.

You're making Colonel John Boyd roll in his grave.

[Macaresafer]

How's life in the 1950s?

Here in the 21st century we've learned that technology is great, but there will always be times when the fighting is done at close quarters.


Don't be so eager to see robots fighting our battles. Two big problems with that: First, if you've got a President who ignores the Constitution (sound familiar?) and the robots won't question his orders. Second, run the software that controls those robots on Windows and it's just a matter of time before an enemy can take control of our robots.

[smilin:)]

"no matter what goes wrong with that bomb,"

"We can guarantee that no matter what goes wrong with that bomb," Upham said, "that it won't land on someone's Winnebago."

Hehe riiiight. It's been a few years but I was there when they broke off the days operations to investigate why a practice bomb went through the range observation shack. I suppose it wasn't a Winnebago though.

[SiXiam]

Colonel John Boyd can go....

This is not Vietnam.... it's what more than 40yrs latter.

Leave the stupid gun off the fighters and focus on your medium and long range missiles.

The robots are coming and the pilots are done... get over it.

[Michael00360]

Don't take the guns

If the missiles fail, then what would you do without the guns? I think there will always be a need for guns on the plane. The F4 proved that to the higher ups back when it was in service.

[SiXiam]

Take away the guns on the fighters...

They don't need them.

Besides if your missiles fail, then your buddy can take the shot.

Machine guns fail also... same solution.