Posted on Jun 3, 2018
Could the F-35 Stealth Fighter Be the 'New' F-4 Phantom?
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The F4 Phantom used to be my favorite plane of the Vietnam War and then the Douglas Skyraider!
Now there are hardly any of them left because they've all been used up for target practice. Good story on how the F-35 Joint/Junk Strike Fighter maybe the new F4 Phantom that was not designed for mano-a --mano close combat. The F4 Phantom was designed to not have a minigun thinking that missiles would do the trick when the missiles themselves were very defective. I never thought that the F-35 would be the F4 Phantom of the second decade of the 21st century. Too fat, too slow and not very maneuverable due to his self design. It's going to have to be paired up with the F-22 and or the F-15/ F-16 to be able to survive in combat at close range.
The F4 Phantom did better in combat than this article describes. Operation BOLO fooled North Vietnamese MIGs thinking they were F-105s. A few were shot down and he became a hero!!
Now there are hardly any of them left because they've all been used up for target practice. Good story on how the F-35 Joint/Junk Strike Fighter maybe the new F4 Phantom that was not designed for mano-a --mano close combat. The F4 Phantom was designed to not have a minigun thinking that missiles would do the trick when the missiles themselves were very defective. I never thought that the F-35 would be the F4 Phantom of the second decade of the 21st century. Too fat, too slow and not very maneuverable due to his self design. It's going to have to be paired up with the F-22 and or the F-15/ F-16 to be able to survive in combat at close range.
The F4 Phantom did better in combat than this article describes. Operation BOLO fooled North Vietnamese MIGs thinking they were F-105s. A few were shot down and he became a hero!!
Could the F-35 Stealth Fighter Be the 'New' F-4 Phantom?
Posted from nationalinterest.org
F-35
Tactics
Design
Common sense
Defense
Edited 6 y ago
Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 4
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I loved the F-4. I don't know if I should be offended with comparing the F-35 to it or not.
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TSgt David L.
LTC (Join to see) - The RF-4C had a camera in place of the gun. The F-4s we had at Moody AFB (D or Gs I think) had their own gun so they didn't need the gun pods.
We had two F-4s with Vietnam Mig kills. One had 3 red stars on it and I think the other only had 1. Not sure at this point who the pilots were. A shame to see them turned into drones and get shot down over the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully the Mig kill birds got turned into museum pieces or city park displays.
We had two F-4s with Vietnam Mig kills. One had 3 red stars on it and I think the other only had 1. Not sure at this point who the pilots were. A shame to see them turned into drones and get shot down over the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully the Mig kill birds got turned into museum pieces or city park displays.
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TSgt David L.
LTC (Join to see) - Actually the Wild Weasel birds might not have had the nose gun either. They had AGM-88 HARM missiles and hard bombs on every station so I don't think they had the gun pod. They usually had fighter escorts though.
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Maj Robert Thornton
Dave, my first base was Shaw with the RF4C. I think I would be offended that they would compare the F-4 with the F-35. I may be wrong, but time will tell.
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TSgt David L.
Maj Robert Thornton - Right there with you as well as a ton of others. The F-4 might do CAS better than the F-35 if you don't mind THAT comparison! Hahaha
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