Out with the old:

VIRGINIA BEACH — Today the Navy holsters the F-14 Tomcat, the top gun in its Cold War arsenal and one of the most recognizable warplanes in history.

Maintenance costs for the F-14 have soared, and its replacement, the F/A-18 Super Hornet, is more versatile and cheaper to maintain.

In with the new:

Boeing’s [BA] EA-18G Growler Monday flew for the first time with its external fuel tanks and Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] ALQ-99 electronic attack pods, prior to being ferried to Patuxent River Navy Air Station, Md., for chamber and flight tests, according to a Boeing official.The Growler, dubbed EA-1 flew for two hours over St. Louis, Mo., to check out the aircraft’s instrumentation, Mike Gibbons, EA-18G program manager for Boeing, told Defense Daily.