I heard the F/A -18 E and F would replace the F-14 as the premier Fleet protector ,aside from the fact I think the E and F can't carry the Phoenix I think the AMRAAMs can do a pretty good job of defending the fleet and keeping those future non existant bombers away from the CVN.
Oh and I meant that the AMRAAMs were good not for dogfighting but for keeping the enemy far away and outside the IR missle range. Another thing people don't take into account if and when those kills in GW1 were made from visual range and not BVR is that perhaps the ROE mandated them to visually identify the targets, though some kills if I recall were done inside the 15 to 10 nm range with Sparrows 7Ms , most likely they wanted to minimize friendly fire incidents.
Another thing I'd like to point out just because the USAF and the Navy practice dogfighting doesn't mean that they will encounter or they plan on engaging in ACM, is just for insurance . The current doctrine, if I'm not mistaken, is to get in and get out as fast as you can , while taking orders from AWACS ,to not reveal the fighter's location until the last moment while using the most passive modes or their airborne radars , get the lock ,get the kills and get out, and in the event the missiles fail, after all there is a probability they will or ROE mandates them to get close enough that they cannot use their BVR sticks then, they won't be caught with their pants down.
Again I could be wrong but I think it makes sense
