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Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 3/97 LUFTWAFFE MUST FLY ITS OLD PHANTOMS EVER LONGER by Stefan Petersen Although the McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantoms have already been in service with the German Luftwaffe for more than two decades, they will probably continue to be the workhorse of Germany's air defence until 2012. "Originally the F-4Fs were designed for 4500 flight hours. Meanwhile, some of the aircraft have accumulated more than 5000 hours", says Lieutenant Colonel Erwin Rauch, Commander of the Technical Group of the Fighter Wing 71 "Richthofen" in Wittmundhafen. The maintenance effort to keep the Phantoms flying is continuously increasing, the supply of spare parts is becoming more and more difficult. Erwin Rauch: "We really need new aircraft soon." Still, even if the Eurofighter, as the designated successor, would be pushed on its way now, the first aircraft would not enter service before 2002. Another decade will pass until all aircraft are delivered, meaning that the last F-4F will not retire before 2012 - after almost 40 years of service in the Luftwaffe. In order to supply the crews with flyable jets, Rauch's technicians must accomplish 45 percent more time per flight hour than 23 years ago, when the Phantom first entered service in Wittmundhafen. Furthermore, the longer the aircraft are in the overhaul facility the longer they are not available for the daily flying operations. Just a few F-4F aircrews can even reach the NATO standard of 180 flight hours per year. On the average, the crews flew only two thirds of this recommended annual flight time in 1996. Only because of the KWS/LV (air defence update program) can the pilots and weapons system operators compensate the missing flight hours with the aged fighter in the NATO alliance. The Hughes AN/APG-65 pulse doppler radar from the F/A-18 Hornet is the core of the update program that was initiated in the mid-eighties. The radar allows the simultaneous fight of multiple targets and, in combination with the recently procured Hughes AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, gives the F-4Fs an all-weather, as well as, a look-down/shoot-down capability. Lieutenant Colonel Helmut Schelchshorn, Deputy Wing Commander of the Fighter Wing 71 and an experienced Phantom pilot himself underlines the advantages of the modified aircraft: "The radar allows us to fight targets at a distance of over 50 kilometers; we can avoid close-in fights where we are inferior." An efficient laser inertial system Honeywell H-423 and a digital computer Marconi SPU-143A were integrated during the update, also. Still, the aircraft are lacking an electronic identification feature: "Without visual contact we depend on target identifications from an AWACS or an F-15." Schelchshorn is sure that the KWS/LV program has secured the survivability of the Phantom: "We are not limited to just defensive tactics any more but, we can successfully operate from medium ranges". Two German F-4F squadrons are assigned to the crisis reaction forces of the German military. Still, "with these modifications, the weapons system F-4F is operationally and technically exhausted." Schelchshorn points out the difficult integration of the digital radar into the aircraft's analogous systems: "There are losses at the interface." Nevertheless, the updates generated an operational quantum leap: "We used to fly with trucks against Ferraris; now the truck is well armed and can look far ahead." Captain Stefan Budrich, with 1300 hours an experienced F-4 pilot and a weapons instructor pilot belonging to Fighter Wing 71, is convinced about the capability of the technicians to have a good grip on the maintenance of the Phantoms in spite of their high flying time: "All arising problems are being dealt with immediately." Still, the repair work can be time consuming if larger damages must be taken care of. At the end of 1995, cracks were found in the inside of the stabilator during a routine inspection of an F-4F. Quick examinations revealed cracks in other aircraft as well. As a result, the entire German Phantom fleet had to be inspected, a large part of the fleet had to be repaired. Jets with damaged stabilators were grounded and the annual flight hours went rapidly down. It wasn't until the summer of 1996 before all aircraft were back in service. Even though there were no serious damages after the stabilator crisis, Schelchshorn points out that the older the Phantoms are getting the more the F-4 wings are operating under the Damocles sword of serious repairs. From page 14 of FLUG REVUE 3/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 3/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated February 13, 1997