spares. This had a significantly adverse effect
on mission capability and effectiveness.
Lt Crandall recalls: “The F-111 was 9%
of Tactical Air Command’s aircraft [fleet]
yet commanded 25% of the budget for
maintenance. It had fantastic capabilities but
it regularly broke. The F model was the best,
most reliable, but I still remember spending
hours and hours sitting in the cockpit as
the [groundcrew] cannibalised parts off
other jets to try to get mine flying. We really
did have a hard time getting our formation
requirements done as it was difficult to get a
formation up together.” However, throughout
the 1980s the situation improved, not least
because of the extra money provided for the
air force when Ronald Reagan assumed the
presidency in 1981.EL DORADO CANYON
When Muammar Gaddafi of Libya had
tested the US patience to breaking point
in the mid-1980s, the Operation El Dorado
Canyon attack was planned to deliver an
unequivocal message to get back in line.
The strike involved USAF aircraft flying from
the UK and bombing targets in and around
the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The US Navy’s
Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean was to
support the operation in addition to carrying
out its own raids on targets around the city
of Benghazi.
It was decided the El Dorado Canyon
attack would be conducted by F-111Fs from
Lakenheath. They would be supported by
EF-111A Ravens from the 42nd Electronic
Combat Squadron from Upper Heyford. The
role of the Ravens was to work with the
navy’s Grumman EA-6B Prowlers in jamming
Libyan radar systems.
A total of 24 F-111Fs and six EF-
111As took off in the late afternoon of
April 14, 1986 and headed south in radio
silence, accompanied by a tanker force of
McDonnell Douglas KC-10s and Boeing
KC-135s. After the first refuelling, six
F-111F spares and one EF-111A returned
to base. The remainder proceeded south
with tankers.
The armada was due to strike its Libyan
targets at approximately 2am on April 15.
Ten minutes before this time the EF-111A
Ravens and the EA-6B Prowlers began their
jamming of the Libyan air defence radars
and communications.Capt Jimenez was one of the pilots with
the strike force – he takes up the story: “The
sky was overcast, and the moon had set
about four hours earlier. We had flown the
entire route ‘comm out’. Our last weather
brief, before take-off, had forecast a 20mph
tailwind from Lampedusa [an island in the
Mediterranean, near Malta] to the target, but
instead we were fighting a 23mph headwind.
If the winds were this off, maybe our forecast
altimeter setting was just as wrong.“Without afterburner, the airplane’s max
speed was 655mph. Approaching the
starting point for the bomb run, we were ten
seconds slow, so I selected afterburner to
accelerate to 690mph for two minutes. The
airplane jumped at the chance to go faster,
and I had to fight off vertigo to keep it level.
When we hit the start point, I turned left
toward the target, hacked my stopwatch,
and again selected afterburner. Our target
run was planned for 690mph at 200 feet.http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 51An F-111F carrying Matra BLU-107 Durandel runway penetration bombs. In the conventional
role the 48 TFW F-111F targets included Soviet and Warsaw Pact airfields. USAF ArchiveThe AN/AVQ-26 Pave Tack pod underneath
an F-111F in March 1989. It is shown in the
standard position on the ground with the
outer weapon bay doors open and the cradle
extended. The bay doors would be closed
before taxiing and not opened again until
just before engine shutdown. Looking from
the rear forward, the cradle rotated counter-
clockwise to expose the pod and clockwise
to stow it. In flight, the pods were normally
rotated out only just prior to attacking a
target that had been detected by radar. Also
note this jet is being loaded with live 500lb
Mk.82s fitted with BSU-49 air-inflatable
retard (AIR) fins, the same payload used in
the April 1986 attack on Tripoli. Jim RotramelF -111F A R M A M E N T
The F-111F could carry a wide array of armament, including the following:
Bomb designation Weight lb Notes
Mk.82 500 (227kg) Unguided, low-drag general-purpose bomb
Mk.84 2,000 (907kg) Unguided general-purpose bomb
CBU-24 650 (295kg) Unguided cluster bomb
BLU-1 07 220 (100kg) Unguided Matra Durandal runway penetration bomb.
Weapon also includes a 33lb (15kg) sub charge
GBU-10 Paveway II 2,000 (907kg) Laser-guided bomb
GBU-12 Paveway II 500 (227kg) Laser-guided bomb
GBU-15 2,000 (907kg) Laser-guided bomb
GBU-24 Paveway III 2,000 (907kg) Laser-guided bomb
GBU-28 5,000 (2,268kg) Laser-guided bomb48-53_usaf_f111DC.mfDC.mf.indd 51 06/06/2018 11:19