Hello and welcome to another episode of Military TV. Today we're going to
discuss about one of the most versatile fighter jet ever built, this is “F-4 Phantom II”.
The McDonnell two-place, twinjet, all-weather F-4 Phantom II. It served in the first line
of more Western air forces than any other jet. Just 31 months after its first flight,
the F-4 was the U.S. Navy's fastest, highest flying and longest range fighter.
It first flew May 27, 1958, and entered service in 1961. The F-4 served in a number of conflicts,
most famously during the Vietnam War, but also with the Israeli Air Force during the 1973
Yom Kippur War and the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. The F-4 has a combat record
of 306 enemy aircraft shot down to 106 Phantoms downed, with 545 jets shot down by ground fire.
The F-4 Phantom was gradually phased out of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps,
replaced with the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The last F-4s left U.S. service in 1996, but a handful served as recently as 2016 as QF-4
unmanned target drones. Today, just Iran, Japan, South Korea, Greece, and Turkey fly the jets,
with each country (except for Iran) planning to replace them within a decade.
More than half of countries that flew the F-4 are buying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,
either as a direct or indirect replacement. But the Phantom’s record in air-to-air combat
over Vietnam especially when compared to its successor, the F-15 Eagle, which has never been
shot down in air-to-air combat has left it with a reputation of being a
clumsy bruiser reliant on brute engine power and obsolete weapons technology.
Furthermore, the F-4 came in both ground- and carrier-based models and served in the U.S.
Air Force, Navy and Marines. But when the F-4 confronted the lighter-weight MiG-17 and MiG-21
fighters of the North Vietnamese air force in 1965, the Phantom suffered. In the Korean War,
the U.S. Air Force had shot down between six and 10 enemy fighters for every one of its
aircraft lost in air-to-air combat. In Vietnam, the ratio was closer to two to one (including
other aircraft types besides the Phantom). The F-4’s primary problem was that it had no
built-in cannon. Instead, it relied entirely on newly-introduced air-to-air missiles the
radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow, the heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder and the older AIM-4 Falcon.
The North Vietnamese MiGs, equipped with both cannons and missiles (on the MiG-21), would
outmaneuver the heavier F-4, which for all its speed, was not especially agile. Worse, American
pilots weren’t trained for close range dogfights, as the Air Force assumed air-to-air engagements
would occur at long range with missiles. Furthermore, the Phantom’s J79 engines produced
thick black smoke, which combined with the aircraft’s larger size,
made it easier to spot and target from a distance. On the other hand, the rules-of-engagement over
Vietnam prohibited U.S. pilots from shooting at unidentified targets beyond visual range,
further crippling the advantages of the missiles. However, the F-4’s problems began to recede.
Air-to-air missile technology dramatically improved with later versions of the Sparrow
and Sidewinder. The F-4E model finally came with an internal M161 Vulcan cannon.
In 1972, an F-4 piloted by Maj. Phil Handley shot down a MiG-19 with his plane’s gun ,
the only recorded aerial gun kill performed at supersonic speed. Eventually, the Air Force
upgraded all of its F-4Es with wing-slats that significantly improved maneuverability at a
slight cost in speed. New J79 engines even dealt with the problem of the F-4’s visible black smoke.
The Navy, in contrast, perceived the problem as being a lack of Air Combat Maneuvering training,
and instituted the Top Gun training program in 1968. Navy pilots went on to score a superior
kill ratio over Vietnam of 40 victories for seven planes lost in air-to-air combat.
The Air Force’s Phantoms claimed 107 air-to-air kills for 33 lost to MiGs,
and the Marine Corps claimed three. Ground fire shot down 474 Phantoms in all services,
as the heavy-lifting Phantom fighters did double duty as ground-attack aircraft.
The last American F-4s would see action during Operation Desert Storm,
before being retired in 1996. The Pentagon later converted some into QF-4 target practice drones.
However, the Phantoms proliferated around the world. The F-4 saw extensive use in Israeli
service, scoring 116 air-to-air kills against the Egyptian and Syrian air forces, starting in 1969
during the War of Attrition. In one engagement on the first day of the Yom Kippur War in 1973,
28 Egyptian MiGs attacked Ofir Air Base.
Just two Phantoms managed to scramble in defense, but they shot down seven of the attackers.
The swan song of the Israeli Phantom force came during Israel’s 1982 intervention in the War in
Lebanon, when Phantoms escorted by new F-15s and F-16s wiped out all 30 of Syria’s SAM batteries
in the Bekaa Valley in one day without losing a single plane in Operation Mole Cricket 19.
Iran received 225 F-4s from the United States prior to the Iranian Revolution.
These formed the backbone of the Iranian fighter force during the nine-year-long war with Iraq. The
Phantom reportedly acquitted itself well versus Iraqi MiGs, and carried out several long-range
raids on the Iraqi airfields. The actual number of air-to-air kills remains disputed.
A question comes to our mind, How could the F-4 possibly keep
up in this new environment? Easy by integrating the same modern hardware
used in the fourth generation. The Phantoms flown by the Turkish and Greek air forces both
have modern pulse-doppler radars, which give the F-4 “look down-shoot down” capabilities.
In the past, high-flying radars had trouble detecting low-flying aircraft because the
radar waves bouncing off the ground created a cluttering effect. Active Doppler radars cut
through the ground clutter. Modern F-4s can also fire the full range of modern ordnance
such as the advanced AIM-120C AMRAAM air-to-air missile with a range of 65 miles, precision-guided
munitions such as the AGM-65 Maverick, and late model Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles.
As combat aircraft are essentially weapons platforms, these capabilities mean that the
F-4s can handle most of the same offensive tasks a fourth-generation F-15 or Su-27
fighter can do. The Iranian air force in 2009 claimed to operate 76 F-4Ds and Es, and six RF-4s.
Tehran has reportedly modified the planes to fire Russian or Chinese air-to-ground
and anti-shipping missiles. They still rely on AIM-7 Sparrows acquired second hand. Likewise,
Iran relies on smuggled and improvised spare parts for its F-4s, just like its F-14 Tomcats.
Iranian Phantoms bombed Islamic State targets in Iraq’s Diyala province in December 2014,
and they continue to play cat and mouse games with U.S. patrols and drones over the Persian Gulf.
But are souped-up F-4s really equal to fourth-generation fighters?
None of these 21st-century Phantoms have flown in air-to-air combat but
F-4s Phantoms have engaged in non-lethal dogfights with Greek F-16s on several occasions.
So what do you think of this fighter jet? Let us know down in the comments and don't
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