At least they recognise that, and put some long range weapons on the Hornets, as well as acquiring some AWACS and new tankers. Today you can refuel in the air where it is safe, before going in. Considering the air dominance by the coalition forces, you don't have to penetrate miles of fighter/sam invested airspace anymore to drop bombs on target far behind enemy lines. So maybe the Hornet is not the ideal solution, but I can't blame them for retiring the F-111 or the F-14 in the american case. The JASSM is replacing the F-111, not the Hornet. And the F-22 is replacing the F-14 in a sense, unless one is still thinking in the traditional tri-service way. So are we really worse off retiring the old fighters? About the JSF, I don't think it lacks range nor speed. It can fly at supercruise (or at least something close to it) because of its better engines/systems, and fly at a proper altitude (because of its stealth). That means you fly more economical and have faster cruise speed, than a F-111 flying ultra-low at full speed to avoid radar detection. So the max range of the F-111 might be better on paper, it won't be that much better in combat.
Of course, the question remains whether it is a good thing to rely on the notion of operating within a coalition offering total control of the airspace. And to what extent a country should rebuild its military for todays way of warfare, moving further away from its original task: homeland defence...
Maybe we should start a seperate discussion, haha.
To get back on topic. Yes, the later Flings are the best. It is recommended to watch the earlier ones first, before watching the 2000-> ones. I love the way they put some movie stuff in there, for example Jerry Macquire, with exception of the Matrix fragments. Those are boring and didn't fit the movies.
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