
The cancellation of the F-14 by Cheney also was influenced by declining defense budgets, because of the end of the Cold War.
For example, the F-15C (fighter version) was last produced in 1986. (most people forget that)
The last of the bulk of F-16CJ's for the USAF were last produced generally up until 1993-94. (most people forget that)
The Tomcat could not drop bombs in 1989 or 1990. It was deemed a single mission jet. It also had ZERO export orders.
Conversely, and which everyone seems to forget, the USMC needed to replace its F-4S Phantoms and A-4M Skyhawks up to early mid 1992. Were they going to do that with fighter mission only F-14's? The answer is NO. The USMC drops bombs and provides CAS for its troops on the ground.
Furthermore, the Hornet had export clients (meaning MONEY), and those orders needed to be fulfilled. In an era of declining defense budgets the Navy was left with one jet (like the USAF with the F-16, circa early 1990's). They simply were not going to choose the single mission F-14 vs the multi-mission Hornet--And dry up the Hornet export line. While telling the USMC to keep flying outdated F-4's and A-4's (because they were never going to get single mission Tomcats). Sorry, but that never was going to happen. Additionally, do you seriously think Bill Clinton was going to increase defense budgets in 1993 and beyond for a fantasy Tomcat, all the while being involved in Somalia, OSW, ONW, Bosnia, Kosovo? ....NOPE
According to Dave "Bio" Baranek: "The first LANTIRN deployment was in 1996 (VF-103) – and with it the F-14 finally became a versatile precision strike-fighter."
I'm willing to bet that If the F-14 didn't become the Bombcat, it would have been retired much sooner than 2006. It was too little, too late. The world political stage was simply different in 1996 vs 1986-