Subject: McDonnell F-4 Phantom (5 of 49)

From: [email-masked] (joseph.f.baugher)
Date: 3 May 94 04:06:31 GMT

In 1963, twelve Navy F-4Bs were modified as F-4Gs.  This was a Navy 
designation, not to be confused with the USAF F-4G of twelve years 
later, which was a *Wild Weasel* aircraft.  

The Navy F-4G was a version of the F-4B modified for the evaluation of 
the feasibility of a SAGE-like system for fleet air defense.  The Navy 
hoped to be able to connect its fighters, ships, and AEW aircraft by a 
two-way datalink network so that fighters could be controlled through 
a communication link that coupled their autopilots to a ship or 
aircraft-based controller.  The intent was to make it possible to 
carry out automatically-controlled interceptions without the need for 
voice commands from ground controllers.  The same system would, 
incidentally, make night/all-weather automatic carrier landings 
possible.  

In support of this program, a single F-4B (BuNo 148254) was fitted 
with an AN/ASW-12 two-way datalink communication system and approach 
power compensator which, coupled with the shipboard AN/SPN-10 radar 
and AN/USC-1 datalink allowed hands-off carrier landings to be 
accomplished.  An AN/ASW-21 was fitted in place of the ASW-13, which 
allowed weapons, oxygen, and fuel status to be relayed to the 
controller.  A radar reflector had to be attached to the nose in order 
to permit the AN/SPN-10 ship-borne radar to track the F-4 during 
automatic landings.  Other changes included the reconfiguration of the 
number 1 fuel tank, which had to lose 600 pounds of fuel in order to 
make room for the datalink equipment.  

Eleven more F-4Bs were converted to this standard on the production 
line.  Their serial numbers were BuNos 150481, 150484, 150487, 150489, 
150492, 150625, 150629, 150633, 150636, 150639, and 150642.  The first 
of these (150481) flew on March 20, 1963.  These planes differed from 
148254 in having a retractable rather than fixed radar reflector 
immediately ahead of the nose-wheel bay.  In early 1963, two of these 
planes were sent to the NATC at Patuxent, and in the summer of 1963 
the remainder were given to VF-96 for testing.  

In January-March 1964, the 10 VF-96 planes were transferred to VF-213.  
On March 31, 1964, the NATC aircraft were redesignated F-4G, and the 
VF-213 aircraft followed suit on April 6.  The F-4Gs of VF-213 were 
operated aboard the USS *Kitty Hawk* in the Gulf of Tonkin from 
November 1965 until June of 1966.  One was lost to North Vietnamese 
AAA, but the others were later stripped of their AN/ASW-21 and brought 
back to F-4B standards.  Seven survived long enough to be converted to 
F-4N configuration.  

The automatic landing and remote-controlled intercept capabilities 
tested by the F-4G were later incorporated into later production 
blocks of the F-4B by addition of the AN/ASW-125, which, however, 
lacked the two-way feature of the AN/ASW-21.  

Sources:

  McDonnell F-4 Phantom: Spirit in the Skies.  Airtime Publishing, 1992.

  Modern Air Combat, Bill Gunston and Mike Spick, Crescent, 1983.

  The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough and
  Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

Joe Baugher			**************************************
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