Like many Washington-Tehran dealings, Iran's acquisition of the F-4E Phantom resulted from a one-on-one conversation between President Nixon and the Shah. Nixon appears to have ignored advice that his friend and ally was devoting too much to arms and too little to domestic needs. In 1968, Iran had acquired 32 F-4D Phantoms, which had no guns but could carry gun pods. In the early 1970s, the first of 177 gun-armed F-4Es and 16 RF-4Es followed.
The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF), or Nirou Hayai Shahahanshahiye Iran, gradually built up to 11 Phantom squadrons (two F-4D, eight F-4D], one RF-4E) at Mehrabad, Shiraz and Tabriz. The Shah, accused by some of viewing frontline military weapons as new toys, even acquired 80 Grumman F-14 Tomcats. Iran, so the rationale went, would be able to defend itself against the Soviet threat to the north while maintaining a bastion of stability along the Persian Gulf. Easily dismissed were critics who argued that Iran was really defending itself from Saudi Arabia, not the Russians, and that the Shah's hold on his own populace was weakening. It might not have been clear who the enemy was, but the air force was rapidly equipping itself with the newest and best aircraft.
Iran's pilots and air force personnel were not as celebrated as Israel's, but the Iranian Air Force enjoyed close ties to the United States and had some excellent pilots. The Persian state had been flying American fighters since the 1940s, and a considerable number of Iranian pilots had been trained at bases in the United States and at Furstenfeldbruck, Germany, under the auspices of the U.S. Military Advisory Group.
An Israeli phantom intercepts and shoots down an egyptian mig-17. A rare photograph taken by the israeli plane's wingman.
On March 13, 1973, State Department officials reported that, in addition to further F-4E Phantoms already committed, Washington would sell Israel four squadrons of fighter-bombers, a mix of A-4 Skyhawks and improved F- 4Es with leading-edge maneuvering slats, TISEO (target identification system, electro-optical), and "man-efficient" to be delivered by January 1974. TISEO was a Northrop-built long-range television in a cylindrical extension from the Phantom's port wing, and was untested in air-to-air battle, although the principle-use of a zoom lens to guide ordnance visually-had planted bombs squarely in the center of Hanoi's Paul Doumer Bridge.
The new deliveries would enhance Jerusalem's military muscle-but January 1974, it would turn out, would be too late. With stunning swiftness, the region erupted into conflict on the eve of Yom Kippur, the traditional Hebrew Day of Atonement-October 6, 1973, with a dramatic assault by Egyptian, Syrian and other Arab forces.
Iranian F4
An official release says that 150 Phantoms made up the fighting spearhead of the IDF/AF defensive effort as the Arabs' surprise attack was unleashed. In the early hours of the fighting, Egyptian Tupolev Tu-16 bombers carrying AS- 5 air-to-surface standoff missiles pressed their attacks deep into Israeli territory. One Tu-16 approaching Tel Aviv on the first day of the war, October 6, was shot down by an Israeli F-4E Phantom.
Phantoms were thrown into action on both fronts and faced a variety of new threats, including vehicle-mounted SA- 6 and shoulder-mounted SA-7 Strella surface-to-air missiles. The Israelis struck decisively against Syrian SAM sites on October 7, and acknowledged the loss of one Phantom in that fighting.
On the Syrian front, MiG-17s and Sukhoi i Su-7s flew ground attack missions escorted by MiG-21s and Iraqi Hawker Hunters. Israel struck back on October 9 by sending Phantoms to bomb downtown Damascus. Seeking to neutralize the Arabs' second front by seizing the Golan Heights and blunting Syria's fighting potential, Israel confirmed yet another Phantom loss on October 11.
There were to be no further acknowledgments of losses despite intensified fighting over October 12-24, but Israeli authorities have consistently stated that no Phantoms were lost in air-to-air combat.
It appears that the F-4E Phantom was used primarily in the long-range strike role, with the Mirage III flying top cover, and most air-to-air engagements appear to have been fought mainly with IR (infrared) heat-seeking missiles rather than at close range with guns.
When they found themselves in closequarters fights with very maneuverable MiGs and less effective Sukhois, Israeli pilots made use of the new notion of "energy maneuverability" in which the battle was fought in three dimensions without regard for the location of the ground or (to put it another way) for "up" and "down." That emphasis on the importance of specific excess power, the standard of thrust-to-weight ratio reached at various conditions of speed, altitude and maneuver, although devised by Americans rather than Israelis, had arrived too late for the Linebacker campaigns in North Vietnam, and some fighter veterans still viewed it as an impertinence.
n certain maneuvering situations, the level flight .73-to-1 thrust-to-weight ratio of the F-4E Phantom could be increased to a more advantageous .9-to-1 or better and, by careful attention to energy maneuvering, the F-4E could prevail over the MG-21 even in a very close, protracted fight.
The Knights of the Orange Tail Squadron
Pilot experience helped, too, and while IDF/AF pilots seemed remarkably young they enjoyed an enormous advantage in experience.
Just as Americans in Vietnam found themselves pitted against highly motivated, Soviet-trained pilots of great ability, the Israelis faced Egyptian and Syrian fliers whose talent and aggressiveness warrant mention. A fierce fighting spirit was exhibited by MiG pilots who seemed to be flying ground control intercept (GCI) with orders to engage Israeli Phantoms only when conditions of altitude, possible surprise, and relative fuel advantage favored them. On occasion, a brace of MiG-21s above a Phantom formation might make a single diving, slashing attack-using the technique of the North Vietnamese to catch the ordnance-laden F-4Es at a disadvantage.
Although the IDF/AF's acknowledged loss of 22 Phantoms to SAMs and ground fire in the Yom Kippur War may seem small, the total, when 45 A-4 Skyhawk losses are added, is a full 20 per cent of the warplanes Israel had received from the United States.
Before the October 1973 conflict, the United States had been delivering Phantoms at the rate of two per month. When war erupted, Operation Nickel Grass followed, through which F-4Es pulled directly from the U. S. inventory were ferried to Israel and immediately thrown into battle, once modified with the Israeli-style refueling receptacle on the right front in place of the U.S.-style dorsal receptacle. One TISEO-equipped late model F-4E actually flew into combat still wearing an SJ tail code telling the world that it had just arrived from Colonel Len C. Russell's 4th Thactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
Thirty-four Phantoms were added to Israel's inventory through Operation Nickel Grass. Counting further purchases made after the 1973 fighting, Israel received 204 Phantoms in all.
Iran used the reconnaissance version of the Phantom to keep tabs on what was happening nearby. On a reconnaissance mission over South Yemen in 1977, an Iranian RF-4E was shot down by a rebel shoulder-mounted missile and went down in one fathom of crystal-clear Gulf water, where it remains easily seen from boats and aircraft to this day.
When the Iran-Iraq war broke out on September 23, 1980, with spectacular long-range raids, Iraqi aircraft strafed and destroyed an Iranian F-4E on the ground at Tehran. It was a bizarrelooking loss, the nose of the Phantom broken off like a bottle stem.
U.S. intelligence analysts told each other that the Ayatollah's air arm, now know as the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), would be destroyed with similar dispatch. The best pilots and the best maintenance people had been loyal to the Shah and had been purged. U.S. intelligence was convinced that the revolutionaries then running the IRIAF lacked the knowledge and the equipment to keep sophisticated Phantoms flying.
What's more, the experts said, the revolutionary air arm lacked the expertise to solve problems with the avion ics--the radar. The revolutionaries would never be able to maintain something as complex as a J79 jet engine or a Westinghouse APQ-120 solid-state radar firecontrol system. The IRIAF was likely to be grounded quickly. The war would be short.
They were wrong on all counts, including being wrong about why the Phantoms were difficult to keep in the air. The real problem was tires. Some way could be found to fix the unfixable, the radar and fire-control system included, but with the West's embargo around Iran, not even the Ayatollah could solve the problem posed by normal wear on rubber tires of a unique size. The Israelis could, however. Cooperation between Jerusalem and Tehran in keeping the latter's Phantoms flying was one of the most unusual partnerships'in recent history.
While some air arms have no future planned for their Phantoms other than for museum display, Israel is devoting considerable effort to updating its Phantom fleet. The effort began with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) embarking on two upgrade programs. The Super Phantom program involved the re-engining of F-4Es with Pratt & Whitney PW1120 turbofan engines, giving a dramatic increase in performance. A modified Phantom equipped with one PW1120 and one traditional J79 first flew on April 24, 1987. Subsequently, tests got underway with a Phantom with two PW1120s that appeared at the June 1987 Paris air show.
The production version of Israel's upgraded Phantom 2000 also has new advanced multimode radar, a wide field of view HUD (head-up display), multifunction displays for both crewmen, a new computerized weapon delivery system and improved radios. In the 1990s, its one-time plans for an indigenous fighter called the Lavi having been canceled, Israel's air arm will rely upon the F-15C Eagle for the air-to-air role, F-16 Fighting Falcon for both air and ground action, and the rejuvenated Phantom for the fighter-attack mission. The Phantom 2000 will overcome the Phantom's principal handicap-the dramatic strides made in fighter radars since the F-4E model was introduced in 1966. Meanwhile, Israel also employs the Phantom for a variety of test missions, including development work on the Gabriel Mark 3 anti-shipping missile.
The Phantom's combat career in the Middle East is far from over. On January 16, 1991, Iraqi forces again found themselves under attack by the bent-winged welterweights--not Iranian fighter-bombers this time, but American F-4G "Wild Weasels" of the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing from George Air Force Base, Calif., coming in at low level against their radar and anti-aircraft installations
Additional Sources: www.jetplanes.co.uk
www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2848
gil.disatnik.com
faq.bigip.mine.nu:8008
www.cdi.org
www.scramble.nl
www.brooksart.com
SAM, I know you post them as you find them, but there were some grating typos and grammatical errors in tonight's postings.
When I was a lad I thought that the F4 was the ultimate taking-care-of-business aircraft, bar none, period.
One night I watched F4s take off from the Da Nang airbase, each with a cluster of 750 pound low drags under each wing. Lots of bombs in those clusters, not some chicken three each.
It was dark when I watched the take-off. I was within 15 yards of the runway. No chicken civilian safety baloney there and then.
The F4 was 63 feet long, I find out. The blue-white exhaust of full military afterburner was half again as long as the aircraft. Maybe a hundred feet of fury. This is the honest truth. There were seven shock cones in the exhaust. I understand that each shock cone means the exhaust is moving at 1 Mach, and seven means 7 Mach, about 8,000 feet per second. No baloney. One and one half miles per second. 5,440 miles per hour.
The ground under my feet shook, a very liquid sensation, a vertical and horizontal movement. The ground moved a lot, shook my lower legs pretty hard. Maybe a quarter inch horizontal movement. I was about two hundred and fifty feet away.
Most impressive of all was the sound. The sound was what was shaking the earth. A very deep shattering sound, turned your guts liquid. Just lovely. What a machine.
This recollection is to the very best of my ability. I don't believe I am exaggerating. I believe I am speaking the honest truth.
You folks watching EU politics? Tony Blair has landed some good ones on Monsieur Chirac. The Poles are deep in this stuff, too. Could not please me more. As Secretary Rice put it, "Punish the French."
Figure Chirac finally realizes he has been set up?
Nah, probably not. So sure of his brilliance that he is very stupid.
Frenchmen can be soldiers if well led. Look at the Paras in Algeria.
Problem is they haven't had any national leadership since Louis X or Saint Joan. Ferdinand Foche and Charles de Gaulle were pretty good men but nothing compared to Saint Joan.
The F-4 is my favorite fighter -- very mean looking. Nothing "user-friendly" about it's looks whatsoever.
It reminds me of a '71 Roadrunner -- not happy unless it's moving.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on June 20:
1566 Sigismund III, King of Poland/Sweden
1763 Theobald Wolfe Tone, Irish nationalist
1819 Jacques Offenbach Cologne, French composer (Tales of Hoffmann)
1823 Jesse Lee Reno, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1824 John Tyler Morgan, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1907
1868 Helen Miller Shepard philanthropist/established Hall of Fame
1894 George Delacorte NYC, philanthropist/publisher (Dell Books)
1899 Jean Moulin hero of the French Resistance during WW II
1907 Lillian Hellman playwright (Toys in the Attic, Little Foxes)
1909 Errol Flynn actor (Captain Blood, Robin Hood, Against All Flags)
1919 Bruce Gordon London England, actor (Frank Nitti-Untouchables)
1920 DeForest Kelley Atlanta Ga, actor (Dr Leonard McCoy-Star Trek)
1924 Audie Murphy Kingston Tx, WWII hero/actor (Destry, Joe Butterfly, To Hell and Back)
1924 Chet Atkins Luttrell Tenn, guitarist (Me & My Guitar)
1928 Jean-Marie Le-Pen France, leader National Front party
1928 Martin Landau actor (Mission Impossible, Space 1999, Tucker)
1931 Olympia Dukakis, Lowell Mass, actress (Moonstruck, Cemetery Club)
1933 Danny Aiello NYC, actor (Moonstruck, Radio Days)
1942 Brian Wilson Inglewood Calif, singer (Beachboys-In My Room)
1944 Terry Funk, Hammond Ind, pro wrestler (WWF/NWA)/actor (Paradise Alley)
1945 James F Buchli New Rockford ND, USMC/astr (STS 51C, 61A, 29, 48)
1950 Lionel Richie singer (Commodores, Hello, Penny Lover)
1952 John Goodman actor (Roseanne, Everyone's All American)
1954 Ilan Ramon, Israeli pilot and astronaut, was born in Tel Aviv. (Died 2/1/03Columbia space shuttle tragedy)
1957 Butch Patrick Inglewood Calif, actor (Real McCoys, Eddie-Munsters)
Deaths which occurred on June 20:
1597 Willem Barents, explorer (discovered Spitsbergen and Bereneil), dies
1837 William IV, King of England, dies
1864 Friend Smith Rutherford, US Union brig-gen, dies in battle at 43?
1883 Olivier Gloux, [Gustave Aimard], French world explorer, dies at 64
1947 Benjamin `Buggsy' Siegel gangster, shot dead in Beverly Hills Cal
1963 Joseph Self murderer, executed; last Wash state execution in 25 yrs
1963 Ralph Sanford actor (Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp), dies at 64
1965 Ira Louvin country singer (Louvin Brothers), dies at 41
1984 Estelle Winwood actress (Miracle on 34th Street), dies at 99
1997 Bobby Helms, composer (Jingle Bell Rock), dies at 61
1997 Lawrence Payton, rocker (4 Tops-I'll Be There), dies at 59
GWOT Casualties
Iraq
20-Jun-2004 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Staff Sergeant Marvin Best Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
Afghanistan
06/20/04 White, Russell P. Lance Corporal 19 Marine 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division Non-hostile - weapon discharge (accid.) Camp Bulldog
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
On this day...
0451 Goths, Franks and Romans defeat Atiila the Hun at Catalarinische Fields
1212 French and Spanish crusaders unite against the Almohaden at Toledo
1402 Battle of Angora (Ankara)-Tatars defeat Turkish Army
1567 Jews are expelled from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique
1632 Britain grants 2nd Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area
1675 Abenaki, Massachusetts, Mohegan and Wampanoag indians form anti-English front under Metacom
1743 British warship Centurion under Commodore George Anson captures Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Senora de Covadonga (1 million Spanish silver dollars and 500 pounds of native silver.)
1756 146 Brit soldiers imprisoned in India-Black Hole of Calcutta-most die
1779 Battle of Stone Ferry
1782 Congress approves Great Seal of US & the eagle as it's symbol
1789 Oath of the Tennis Court (for a new constitution) in France taken
1791 King Louis XVI caught trying to escape French Revolution
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a cotton gin patent
1819 Savannah becomes 1st steamship to cross any ocean (Atlantic)
1837 England issues its 1st stamp, 1P Queen Victoria
1837 Queen Victoria at 18 ascends British throne following death of uncle King William IV Ruled for 63 years ending in 1901
1863 1st bank chartered in US (National Bank of Davenport Iowa)
1863 West Virginia admitted as 35th US state
1867 Pres Andrew Johnson announces purchase of Alaska
1871 Ku Klux Klan trials began in federal court in Oxford Miss
1874 1st US Lifesaving Medal awarded (Lucian Clemons)
1893 Lizzie Borden found innocent in New Bedford Mass
(Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one.)
1895 1st female doctor of science earned (Caroline Willard Baldwin)
1895 Nicaragua, El Salvador & Honduras form a short-lived confederation
1907 1st Portland Rose festival
1910 "Krazy Kat" comic strip by George Herriman debuts in NY Journal
1911 NAACP incorporates (NY)
1913 3 of 1st 4 Yankees hit-by-pitch en route to a record 6 hit batsman Bert Daniels set AL mark, being hit-by-pitch 3 times in a doubleheader
1917 J Palisa discovers asteroid #876 Scott
1920 Yanks win protest of 1-0 White Sox win & game is replayed
1921 29.2 cm (11.5") of rainfall, Circle, Montana (state record)
1936 Jesse Owens of the US sets 100 meter record at 10.2
1939 C Jackson discovers asteroid #1817 Katanga
1939 Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants
1942 Adolf Eichmann proclaims deportation of Dutch Jews
1942 German troops conquer Tobruk, North Africa
1943 Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded
1943 Detroit race riot kills 35
1943 New Quebec (Chubb) Crater discovered in northern Quebec (3« km dia)
1944 Nazi begin mass extermination of Jews at Auschwitz
1947 Pres Truman vetoes Taft-Hartley Act
1948 "Toast of the Town" hosted by Ed Sullivan premieres on CBS-TV
1949 Central Intelligence Agency Act, passes
1950 Joe Dimaggio's 2,000th hit, Yanks beat Indians 8-2
1958 FBI rejects Ronald Reagan for starring role in “The FBI Story.” Reason, Reagan’s association with Communist front organizations in the 1940s.
1960 Federation of Mali (& Senegal) becomes independent of France
1960 Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johansson in 5 regains heavywgt boxing title
1963 1st Mayor's Trophy Game, Mets beat Yanks 6-2
1963 Beatles form "Beatles Ltd" to handle their income
1963 US & USSR agree to set up "Hot Line"
1966 Sheila Scott completes 1st round-the-world solo flight by a woman
1967 Muhammad Ali convicted of refusing induction into armed services
1967 Phillies Larry Jackson beats NY Mets for 18th straight time
1968 Jim Hines becomes 1st person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds
1969 150,000 attend Newport '69, Jimi Hendrix gets $120,000 to appear
1970 Oriole's Brooks Robinson get his 2,000 career hit, a 3 run HR
1974 Felix Aguilar Observatory discovers asteroid #2124 Nissen
1977 Oil enters Trans-Alaska pipeline exits 38 days later at Valdez
1978 1st 6 teams of Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) granted-Iowa, NJ, Milwaukee, Chicago, Minnesota & Dayton
1980 Roberto Duran takes WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal by unanimous decision
1984 Amber Kvanli, of Minnesota, crowned America's Junior Miss
1986 Drs at Bethesda Naval remove 2 small benign polyps from Reagan's colon
1987 Johnny Carson marries 4th wife Alexis Mass
1988 Price is Right model Janice Pennington is knocked out by a TV camera
1990 40,000-50,000 die in a (7.6) earthquake in Iran
1994 Bomb attack on Islamic temple in Mashad Iran (70 killed)
1996 Attorney General Janet Reno asked that the Whitewater counsel be allowed to investigate the matter of FBI background checks. A panel of judges agreed the next day.
2001 Houston resident Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family bathtub, then called police. Yates was later sentenced to life in prison.
2001 American Lori Berenson was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Peruvian court for collaborating with leftist guerrillas.
2003 Gov. Davis announced that car license fees would triple as of Oct. 1. (Well that worked real well for him)
2003 Iranian student protests against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spread to at least 8 other cities.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Argentina : Flag Day
Senegal : Independence Day (1960)
Finland and Sweden : Midsummer Day
West Virginia : Admission Day (1863)
National Ice Cream Soda Day
Black Music Month
Religious Observances
RC : Feast of St Silverius, 58th pope [536-37], martyr
Religious History
1529 Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Peace of Barcelona, which ended attacks on Rome by the Lutheran armies.
1599 The Synod of Diamper reunited a native church in India with Rome. Discovered in 1498 by Portuguese explorers, this isolated pocket of worshipers traced their Christian origins back to the missionary efforts of the Apostle Thomas.
1776 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'A Christian is not of hasty growth...but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a deep-rooted tree.'
1779 Birth of Dorothy Ann Thrupp, English devotional writer and author of the hymn, 'Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.'
1885 A band of Moravian missionaries landed on the shores of Alaska and founded the Bethel Mission. During the first year of their mission work among the, eskimoes, winter temperatures outside their makeshift housing plummeted to 50 degrees below zero!
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Farmers stew over 'couch potato'
Farmers want "couch potato" removed from the dictionary because they believe the expression is damaging the vegetable's image
A campaign promoting use instead of "couch slouch" is being led by the British Potato Council, representing 4,000 growers and processors.
The council argues that potatoes are "inherently healthy".
Protests are due on Monday outside dictionary publisher Oxford University Press and in Parliament Square, London.
"We are trying to get rid of the image that potatoes are bad for you," said council head of marketing Kathryn Race.
"Of course it is not the Oxford English Dictionary's fault but we want to use another term than 'couch potato' because potatoes are inherently healthy."
The campaign is backed by dieticians who say the vegetable is low in fat and high in vitamin C, the council says.
The dictionary defines a couch potato as: "A person who spends leisure time passively or idly sitting around, especially watching television or video tapes."
Chief editor John Simpson said: "When people blame words they are actually blaming the society that uses them.
"Dictionaries just reflect the words that society uses."
Words were never removed from the 20-volume, 650,000-word main dictionary, but little-used ones could be taken out of the smaller dictionaries, Mr Simpson added.
The first recorded use of "couch potato" was in the Los Angeles Times in 1979 and it entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993, he said.
Thought for the day :
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,.....and a lot of b*tching."
It was a sad day in May 2003 when "The Old Man of the Mountain" broke apart and slid down the mountainside. This 40-foot profile of an old man's face, carved by nature in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, had long been an attraction to tourists, a solid presence for residents, and the official state emblem. It was written about by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his short story The Great Stone Face.
