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From: swilliam@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Steve Williams)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: The F-111 tragicomedy (was Re: B2 vs. F117A)
Message-ID: <1991Mar7.013506.834@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Mar 91 01:35:06 GMT
References: <1991Feb26.011655.5357@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar4.204930.4811@cbnews.att.com>
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From: swilliam@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Steve Williams)

| 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?

F-111 is no longer a fighter plane; almost all F-111s have been converted 
into FB-111A, which is a strategic bomber version.  There may also be
some ECM and reconnaissance versions of F-111s, but I am not sure.

Steve Williams

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes which can be made
in a very narrow field."   -- Niels Bohr, Danish Scientist