Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ncar!unmvax!uokmax!occrsh!fang!att!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: The F-111 tragicomedy (was Re: B2 vs. F117A) Message-ID: <1991Mar7.013354.600@cbnews.att.com> Date: 7 Mar 91 01:33:54 GMT References: <1991Feb26.011655.5357@cbnews.att.com> <1991Feb28.050855.8085@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar4.204930.4811@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker) Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 30 Approved: military@att.att.com From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: gabriele@riverdale.toronto.edu (Mark Gabriele ) >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? Despite its designation, the F-111 is a bomber, not a fighter. It was originally meant to also serve as a heavy interceptor for the Navy, but that never came off. Like the F-105, the F-111's primary mission was tactical nuclear strike; unlike the F-105, the F-111 was developed after guns were discarded as obsolete weaponry (and before Vietnam caused some rethinking), so adding air-to-air armament requires reducing air-to-ground load. The reason it's not the B-111 (well, probably B-72 or thereabouts) is that the Strategic Air Command has exclusive rights to the letter B. :-) Well, not quite, but pretty close; neither the Navy nor the tactical-air people have ever been allowed to use B, even when talking about aircraft like the Skywarrior which were unquestionably strategic bombers. The reason it's not the A-111 (well, maybe A-8 or thereabouts) is that the USAF never voluntarily uses A; that letter is for inferior Navy aircraft, not glamorous USAF aircraft. (The A-10 was built only because the alternative -- giving the close-air-support mission to the Army -- was unquestionably worse.) -- "But this *is* the simplified version | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology for the general public." -S. Harris | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry