Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: wjh@wayback.att.com (William J Hery)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Fighters without guns
Keywords: Only the F-4?
Message-ID: <13035@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Jan 90 04:59:38 GMT
References: <12928@cbnews.ATT.COM>
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From: wjh@wayback.att.com (William J Hery)

>I understand that the U.S. went through a phase in the '50s and
>early '60s where we considered the gun on a fighter to be obselete...
>But I'm trying to think of the fighters that were actually deployed
>without an internal gun, and I can only name one: the F-4 Phantom II.
>
>So I'm wondering what other U.S. fighters have been deployed
>without an internal gun.
>Does anybody know of any others?
>And how about fighters deployed by other countries?
>Has the USSR ever deployed a gunless fighter?

>From "Modern Warplanes" (by Sweetman, Gething, Richardson, Spick, and
Gunston; Portland House, NY, 1987), in the section on F-4 armament:

"In the early 1950s gun armament was considered obsolete by many operators.
In the USA, Britain, and the Soviet Union canonless designs such as the F-86D,
F-102, Lighning, MiG-19PM, and SU-9 were entered into service. This
mistaken trend continued into later designs as the F-106 and SU-15."

The section then describes how the early F-4s didn't have guns, but were
retrofit with gun pods, and that the F-4Es were designed with built in
guns.

Bill Hery
AT&T Bell Labs
201-386-2362
att!wayback!wjh
wjh@wayback.att.COM