There was this interesting post on the ED forum about capabilities:
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Early ones smoked, later ones didn’t. Smoke could be used tactically to deceive the enemy (the Navy) by running in in Mil (full smoke mode) then going Tac Burner (one in idle, one in min AB) which killed the smoke. A good posthole for ana altitude split would then allow an unobserved entry on doofuses who hadn’t seen that trick before.
F-4C/D/E radar A/G mapping was very basic - much like the Viggen (but reversed video - water was dark, land was bright). Good for finding islands, lakes, etc. NO terrain following capability (RF-4s had that, somewhat, different radar). On a cross country from Kadena to Osan I practiced a Nuke attack on Nagasaki using the radar mapping of the land water contrast (tone switch outboard, of course). It just had to be done…
Pre-ARN-101 F-4Es (and Ds) had a radar ranging based system called Dive Toss. When it worked, it was pretty good - much better in combat than anyone dropping manual bombs using the iron sight. If you wanted to win quarters with it on the range, you had to cultivate the radar and WRCS tech to tweak it a lot. WSO had to select DT mode, then lock on to the ground return at the beginning of the dive; then the pilot pressed and held the pickle button and flew his ass over the target - the bombs (usually 6 x MK 82s on TERs) came off at the computed range and angle.
ARN-101 - modded Es had a pretty good CCIP mode, except that the “HUD” did not have the CCIP predictor line. It was just the A/A gun reticle (with range bar for ranging - again off the radar) that continuously showed the impact point. Pilot had to fly the pipper to the target, in parameters, and pickle when it crossed the target. Pretty accurate with some practice, but I preferred the Dive Toss (CCRP) mode because you could maneuver more during the delivery.
Before ARN mod, carried Pave Spike TV pod to guide GBU-10/12s. Could use Mavericks but we only had As and Bs (no IR) and they were pretty much useless unless plinking tanks in the desert. ARN-101 jets could carry the Pave Truck (uh - Pave Tack) on the centerline - awesome TV/IR pod that was really just too big for the F-4 but perfect for the 111.
GBU-15s were fun - In training you would fly as a two ship taking turns being the guider and the bomb. The bomb jet would press in to the selected target (a local Prison , or Pedro’s truck stop on I-95) “being the bomb” following the guiders commands. Pissed off a few people pressing a bit too close… This was before the GPS aided EGBU-15s and AGM-130s that the F-15Es later carried, so you had to navigate and fly the bomb via visual landmarks all the way to the target. REAL easy to screw up!
USAF F-4s never carried AIM-7Fs or Ms - All we ever carried were AIM-7E-3s. Killed a few Firebee drones with those mothers - the “Great White Hope”. For heaters, we carried 9Js and 9Ps. It was interesting fighting the early German F-4Fs (before the radar/AMRAAM upgrade); they had smoking J-79s, we didn’t, they only had AIM-9Ls, we had AIM-7Es and AIM-9Ps. Totally different tactics to the merge!
Finally - if you are going to fly and fight an F-4 - better get REAL good with your rudders! At high AOA all rolling was via rudder with the ailerons neutral - or risk a departure. Hardwings were really bad, slats less violent but you still used rudder to roll (which still works on the F-15, by the way).
Yes, I still have my -1 and -34 somewhere…
Vulture[/quote]
