F
ollowing withdrawal from South
Vietnam between 1973 and 1975,
the armed forces of the United States
entered a period of introspection
concerning the conduct of the war and
the lessons to be learnt. The USAF had
been unexpectedly mauled by the North
Vietnamese air defences throughout the
con ict. Of the approximately 1,700 combat
losses, the majority were due to radar-
guided anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), with the
remainder shot down by other forms of
ground re, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) or
enemy aircraft.
Quite clearly this attrition rate was
unacceptable and in the years followingthe end of the con ict the USAF accepted
its tactics and doctrines were outdated. To
counter losses by enemy aircraft the air force
established the Fighter Weapons School at
Nellis AFB, Nevada. It also instigated the
concept of dissimilar air combat training
(DACT); establishing aggressor units at
Nellis, RAF Alconbury, Cambridgeshire and
Clarke AB in the Philippines.
To address the problems with the AAA
and SAM threats it sought to modify and
upgrade its suppression of enemy air
defences (SEAD) doctrine which had its
origins in 1965. This was when the USAF
had tentatively developed the Wild Weasel
concept for attacking and neutralising enemyground-to-air defences. It had led to the
specially modi ed variants of the North
American F-100F Super Sabre and Republic
F-105F Thunderchief; both of which served
in this role with varying degrees of success.
During the war it was also decided to modify
McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom IIs for
the role. This would be the rst of a number
of Phantom variants for this mission, and for
a period the F-4G model worked in unison
with the F-16 Fighting Falcon.A NEW VARIANT
The 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing’s rst Wild
Weasel hunter/killer teams were made up of
the F-4E and F-4G. Each of the wing’s units,SPANGDAHLEM’S
HUNTER KILLERS
For a period in the late 1980s and early 1990s different generations of
USAF fast jets worked together in the suppression of enemy air defences role.
Doug Gordon examines this unusual arrangement at Spangdahlem which
saw the F-16 working with the F-4G as Wild Weasel hunter/killer teams.
36 Aviation News incorporating Jets October 2018
F-4 PHANTOM TRIBUTE