Posted on 03/23/2006 8:08:08 AM PST by Cliff Dweller
LOL! Right you are, sir. The EA-6B (with it's four man crew) is what I meant to type.
The B1-A was very much like the F-111 in that both used much of the same avionics including the terrain follwing radar, and both had crew escape capsules rather than conventional ejection seats.
The production B1-B, however, dropped the crew capsule design and has conventional ejection seats.
Different schools of thought. Most EW types will tell you that the Prowler, even with its shortcomings, is superior to the Raven in many respects.
I'm reaching here, but I think only the F-111B was designed to fire the Pheonix. We certainly never used them on the F-111A,D,E, or F. I recall an Aim-9 and a Guns mode on the A-A HUD, but no other mode.
Most of my time was with the A, so the HUD was not much better than those of the Korean War. No radar designator boxes, no flight data, just a pipper and lead computing.
Gs are former F-111As not former Ravens. The EF-111A was still in service when the Aussies obtained their 15 Gs from AMARC. Those Gs were upgraded to Cs before delivery down under.
The EA-6B required three EWOs in additon to the pilot and , and up to 5 external jammer pods for full effect. Additonally, the jammer pods used ram air generators, so were huge drag loads and were not too effective at low speeds.
I'm sure the avionics of the EA-6B is much improved by now, but still can't dash with a strike package at Mach 1+
Fat finger, yet again.
The F-111 was never going to be the dogfighter that the F-14 is/was. There's no rearward view, ferchristsake!
Australia's F-111Cs and Gs are Pave Tack fitted.
Workload distributed between ECMOs 2 & 3 in the Prowler, ECMO 1 operates COMM/NAV/DECM, is superior to and provides greater flexibility than the one body in the Raven. All that automated stuff looks great on paper until it doesn't work. That lack of flexibility will be perpetuated in the Growler. Larger 90 kVA generators had to be fitted in order to power the ECM suite on the EF-111 so your criticism against the RAT gens is bogus. The Raven didn't have HARM capability either. Also, if a fire develops the individual pod can be pickled on a Prowler, not so with the Raven. Lack of ability to operate from an expeditionary airfield is another tick in the con column. Speed, while nice to have, isn't everything and the Growler will be hard pressed to escort at Mach 1+. A clean Super Hornet won't even exceed Mach 1 below 10K.
My thoughts exactly.
Not an aircraft that I would classify as a "jet fighter".
But then they put those GE engines in and ....Whoopeeee!
Connelly, not O'Malley, thanks for the correction.
The engines were the weak point of both the F-111B and the F-14A. Pretty much the same engines in fact. None the less, an F-111B did conduct test flight ops off of the Coral Sea. 
F-111B 1510974 In late 1968, became the only F-111 to perform carrier operations on the USS Coral Sea.
F-111B used TF-30-P12 engines. F-14A used the TF30-P-414A. F-111A used TF30-P-3
The F-14 was designed for more powerful engines, and latter the F-14B and D got them as the F110-GE-400 replaced the P&W TF-30s of the -A model.
The final version of the F-111 used 25,000 lb thrust engines as opposed to the 18,500 lb versions used on the -A model.
Its no shame. That aircraft is not as good as the Strike Eagle. Faster? Sure. Cost a fortune to maintain? You bet. The F-14 Phoenix system was an evolution from the system built for the YF-12's Eagle missile system, slaved to the AWG-9 Radar which came from the F-111.
Also, the F-111 still carries those crappy TF-30's that killed a number of my friends in the Tomcat.
In fact the Phoenix and associated AWG-9 fire control system were designed for the F-111B, and first tested on them. Only after the Navy canceled the F-111B and instituted the F-14 program did the Phoenix and AWG-9 get put onto that bird. In some sense the bird was designed around them in fact.
Not to nitpick, but the Tomcat A used the TF-30-P-412A.
Typo?
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