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From: v059l49z@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Paul C Stacy)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: The F-111 tragicomedy (was Re: B2 vs. F117A)
Message-ID: <1991Mar6.035556.21920@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 6 Mar 91 03:55:56 GMT
References: <1991Feb26.011655.5357@cbnews.att.com> <1991Feb28.050855.8085@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar4.204930.4811@cbnews.att.com>
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From: v059l49z@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Paul C Stacy)

In article <1991Mar4.204930.4811@cbnews.att.com>, gabriele@riverdale.toronto.edu (Mark Gabriele ) writes...
> 
>I was astonished to read in Tuesday's NYT about an F-111 that
>encountered an Iraqi helicopter in flight and had *no* armament
>suitable for dealing with it.  How can it be that a plane that is
>ostensibly a *fighter* would have no cannon, no missiles, nothing?
>Can anyone illuminate this for me?


Originally it was intended to be a fighter for the Navy (using stand-off
Eagle missiles (which evolved into the Phoenix.)  Many aircraft have been
called fighters when they were really attack planes (such as the F-105.)

The F-111D model does carry the 20mm Vulcan cannon with 2084 rounds in the
bomb bay (the largest capacity of rounds in any plane today so I've read.)

At least some of the F-111's now carry Sidewinders on the wing pylons 
(resembling the way they are carried on F-15's.)





				Paul "Joe Friday" Stacy