F-111 Aardvark: A Jet Fighter Assassin

[Applause] the F-111 Aardvark is a Jet Fighter Assassin the F-111 Aardvark was the U.S Air Force's Premier strike aircraft for the majority of the Cold War served in practically every conflict from Vietnam forwards until it was replaced by the f-15e Strike Eagle it also served Strategic Air Command in a limited role as a strategic bomber but what made the F-111 great did the United States truly lose any capability by retiring it [Music] the F-111 was one of the earliest joint service aircraft meant to fulfill both the U.S Air Force's requirement for a swing Wing strike bomber and the U.S Navy's requirement for a long-range interceptor revolutionary design the F-111 was built around two powerful yet fuel-efficient tf-30 turbofan engines with new afterburner technology the fuselage can accommodate bomb loads of up to 31 000 pounds and fuel for Missions up to 2500 miles long with external tanks adding another thousand miles the large plane weighed 20 tons empty or more than twice that loaded the designers of the F-111 faced a challenge they needed a plane that could fly at very high speeds but still take off or land on a short Runway using smaller Wings would create less drag allowing the aircraft to fly faster but also create less lift requiring the aircraft to achieve higher speeds before takeoff in turn necessitating a longer Runway for example the other supersonic fighter bomber of the era the f-105 Thunder Chief had very small wings and required air strips over a mile long for takeoff limiting which airfields it could operate from the f-111's designers adopted a new technology of variable geometry or swing Wings these permitted the wings to swing out during takeoff to generate maximum lift and would tuck inward mid-flight to achieve higher speeds the F-111 was the first of several major designs that used the technology the two-man crew sat side by side in a cockpit pod they needed to escape a rocket boosted the Pod upward which then floated to the ground on a parachute just like a Space Capsule a key Innovation was the f-111's Revolutionary new terrain following radar which mapped the ground directly in front of the plane and then automatically adjusted the flight path to avoid a collision this allowed f-111s to fly as low as 200 feet above the surface and make precise adjustments at high speeds without crashing even when flying at night or in bad weather conditions the f-111's talent for hunting and darkness knows close to the ground was what earned it the Appalachian aardvark early f-111s did show promise capable of flying over the speed of sound at Mach 1.2 at low altitude or more than double that Mach 2.5 at high altitude all the while requiring only a 2 000 foot Runway to land it was the first tactical aircraft across from the United States of Europe without mid-air refueling however the f-111's design was biased in favor of the Air Force's specifications the carrier-based Interceptor version the f-111b performed abominably in Trials struggling to exceed Mach 1. the expensive Force compromise that was the naval version was finally scrapped leaving everyone millions of dollars poorer many of the more promising design elements of the f-111b made it over to the F-14 Tomcat however Desert Storm f-111s participated in the Gulf War Operation Desert Storm in 1991. during Desert Storm f-111fs completed 3.2 successful strike missions for every unsuccessful one better than any other U.S strike aircraft used in the operation the group of 66 f-111fs dropped almost 80 percent of the war's laser-guided bombs including the penetrating bunker buster gbu-28 the f-111s were credited with destroying more than 1500 Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles their use in the anti-armor role was dubbed tank blinking pigs of the Pacific the F-111 remained in service with the Australian Air Force until 2010 where it was affectionately known as the pig starting with a batch of 24 f-111cs received a 1973 the Australians acquired an additional 15 fb-111s and four f-111as though never used in combat the f-111s gave Australia the ability to project military force across the vast distances of the Pacific Ocean enhancing its diplomatic clout pigs were the pride of Australian air shows where they frequently performed a maneuver in which fuel was dumped and ignited with the afterburners known as the dump and burn Australia upgrades its f-111s to use anti-shipping missiles and converted four into reconnaissance aircraft due to their High operating costs however they were finally replaced by 24 f-18f super Hornets while the F-111 has been retired a similar aircraft remains in use today the Russian Sukhoi su-24 fencer was conceived shortly after the F-111 and is remarkably similar in appearance and roll down to the swing Wings not quite the aardvarks equal in terms of range speed or weapons load nearly three times more su-24s were produced and over 300 serve on today in various World Air Forces they've been actively used in combat over Syria chechnya Libya Afghanistan and Ukraine a Russian su-24 attacking Syrian rebels was shot down in 2015 by a Turkish F-16 causing a major diplomatic incident variants 563 f-111s of all variants were built after the f-111a the f-111d and E models upgraded the aardvarks electronics and engine inlets and increased the thrust of the engines another variant the fb11 was designed as a strategic bomber with improved engines stretched two feet longer to accommodate additional fuel 75 of these served in Strategic Air Command units the f-111c was sold exclusively to Australia it Incorporated a mixture of design elements of the fb11 and the f-111e the definitive f-111f sported engines with 35 percent more thrust upgraded radar and a paved attack infrared targeting pod that allowed the crew to identify Targets on the ground and hit them with Precision guided munitions starting in the mid-1970s 42 f-111as were converted into unarmed ef-111a Raven electronic jamming platforms at a cost of 1.5 billion dollars the ef-111's key system was an alq 99e jamming pod that emitted radiation that scrambled Radars in the vicinity permitting entire formations of aircraft to pass in its wake undetected when active the Jammer's current literally caused the hairs on the crew's heads to stand as it crackled through the plane thus the Raven was known as the sparkvark to its Pilots the ef-111 is distinguishable by the receiver pod on the tail fin [Applause] F-111 was in service with the USAF from 1967 through 1998. the fb-111s were operated by Strategic Air Command from 1969 before the conversion to f-111g and transferred to air combat command until their retirement in 1993. 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Channel: US Military News

Views: 2,576,804

Keywords: F-111, F-111a, F-111f, F-111 Aardvark, Fighter Assassin, retired supersonic, multirole combat aircraft, Attack aircraft, f-111 cockpit, f-111 ejection

Id: lSBzKfXK9Mg

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 09 2021