Australians had an operational association with
the Phantom during the Vietnam War. This informal group portrait
of pilots of the USAF's 389th Tactical Fighter Squadron in front
of a Phantom F4-D at the Phu Cat air base includes Flight Lieutenant
Lindsay A. Naylor RAAF: he's the one in the slouch hat!
It was supposed to be a smooth transition from the
venerable Canberra bomber to the high tech, state-of-the-art F111C
strike bomber, and the RAAF had allowed plenty of transition time
for the F111 to come into service. However, the revolutionary aircraft
with its variable swing wing experienced a number of delivery delays.
While on one hand these were the result of the RAAF’s unique
configuration requirements which resulted in the designation F111C,
the main cause was the design and build standard of the aircraft
itself. The mechanism that controlled the variable swing wing was
the cause of several mishaps and aircraft losses, causing a review
of contractor standards and a major redesign. All this took time,
and for the RAAF, that meant a serious erosion of front line capability
as the Canberra bomber fleet came to the end of its service life.
The solution was the procurement of the best available front line
fighter bomber, the McDonnell Douglas F4E Phantom II. A total of
24 were procured from the US Air Force, but not in the conventional
way. As they were considered to be a short-term interim solution,
the RAAF took the unprecedented step of leasing the aircraft from
the United States. The deal came with all required spares, tuition
and ground handling equipment. Rather than the long lead time normally
associated with the introduction of a new and complex aircraft,
the Phantom began arriving in Australia during September 1970, only
months after the lease was signed.
The aircraft was a significant technological leap for the RAAF,
and allowed the tempo of training in fast strike attack techniques
to be maintained, despite the reduction in Canberra bomber availability,
and pending the delivery of the F111C. It was a smart solution to
what would otherwise have left a yawning gap in Australia’s
defence capability. The Phantoms were operated by Numbers 1 and
6 Squadrons, but their time with the RAAF proved to be all too brief.
With the arrival – finally- of the F111C aircraft, most of
the Phantoms were progressively released, with the last flown back
to the United States in mid-1973. The lease had not been without
its mishaps, however, and only 23 of the 24 aircraft returned to
the USA, as one had been damaged beyond repair when it crashed near
Evans Head NSW in June 1971.
The lease of these 24 aircraft was not the only close contact that
RAAF crews had with the Phantom. During the Vietnam War, several
RAAF crewmen had been assigned to US Air Force units flying Phantoms,
mostly the earlier F4C, F4D and RF4C versions. These crewmen were
highly regarded by their American counterparts, with one awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his efforts against a North
Vietnamese offensive around Pleiku in 1970.
An F4E Phantom operated by the RAAF. Still retaining
their original US Air Force numbers, 24 Phantoms were leased to
maintain capability between the demise of the Canberra and the introduction
of the F111C. |
