Aircraft of the Aces 060 - Israeli F-4 Phantom II Aces (2004).pdf

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OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES

• 60

Israeli

F-4 Phantom II

Aces

Shlomo Aloni

SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES

OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES

• 60

Israeli

F-4 Phantom ll

Aces

Shlomo Aloni

SPREY

PUBLISHING

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

ATTRITION 6

CHAPTER TWO

DOUBLE FORCE, TREBLE KILLS 15

CHAPTER THREE

YOM KIPPUR WAR

– THE CRUCIAL HOURS 23

CHAPTER FOUR

REGAINING THE INITIATIVE 34

CHAPTER FIVE

THE WAR’S FINAL DAYS 46

CHAPTER SIX

ROUNDING UP THE SCORE 76

APPENDICES 86

C O L O U R P L AT E S C O M M E N TA R Y 9 1

INDEX 96

CHAPTER ONE

ATTRITION

n ‘ace’ pilot is usually considered to be a fighter pilot. Indeed,

the dictum ‘not a pound for air-to-ground’ is attributed to the

US Air Force’s ‘fighter mafia’, who despised the concept of the

fighter-bomber. Although it is only natural for fighter pilots to yearn for

the best available aircraft for air-to-air combat, senior commanders

usually have a broader view of what is best-suited to their needs. As the

air force of a small nation with limited resources, the Israeli Defence

Force/Air Force (IDF/AF) firmly believed that versatile combat aircraft

that were both able to attack the enemy and have a reasonable

self-defence capability made the best use of limited resources.

Yet versatile fighters had inherent deficiencies. Dassault’s Mirage III,

which formed the backbone of the IDF/AF during the 1960s,

had earned its fame as a MiG killer,

but its bomb-carrying ability in

the ground attack role was not

satisfactory and nor was its all-

weather performance.

The IDF/AF’s mixed force of

ground attack aircraft in the 1960s

proved able to defend themselves

against hostile interceptors, and

were credited with air-to-air kills.

However, if ‘versatility’ was

defined as the ability to fly both

air-to-air and air-to-ground

missions with equal success, then

the Dassault’s Ouragan, Mystere,

and Super Mystere, Sud Aviation’s

McDonnell Douglas released this

image of an ‘Israeli’ F-4E on

11 November 1968, midway

between President Lyndon B

Johnson’s January 1969

commitment to supply the

Phantom II to Israel and the

actual start of deliveries in

September of that year. They

subsequently arrived at the

rate of four a month

A McDonnell Douglas artist’s

impression of an F-4D look-alike in

Israeli camouflage. Israel’s purchase

of the aircraft was agreed in January

1968, officially announced by the

State Department on 28 December

and covered by Project

Peace Echo

(later

Peace Echo I),

which included

44 F-4E fighter-bombers and six

RF-4E reconnaissance aircraft – the

latter did not arrive in Israel until

January 1971

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