"Doug "Woody" and Erin Beal" wrote in message
...

The jet was intelligently designed. The diagnostic MSP codes it pumps out
(while not 100% accurate) significantly reduce trouble shooting--for
instance leading AT's to the correct LRU the first time--as opposed to the
(admittedly more "romantic") troubleshooting techniques on older Grumman
jets. This is the result of a systems engineering approach to
maintenance.
(F-35 is even better OBTW.) A ground-up redesign on the Tomcat might be
able to incorporate some of these features, but you're still saddled with
the constraints of the basic airframe.

You hit the nail right on the head. As a former Tomcat avionics tech, I will
admit the F-14 challenged me to be a better tech - however the learning
curve was very steep. When I transferred to Pax in the late 80's I was
shocked to learn how easy the Hornets were to work on (all us avionics types
worked out of the same workcenter at the late great SATD). The lessons
learned then serve me well now as an R&M engineering tech.

One minor nit - "LRU" is usually a USAF term. We tend to call boxes WRA's in
the Navy. (Weapons Replaceable Assembly).

-CJ