Variants
The F-111A first flew in December 1964. The first operational
aircraft was delivered in October 1967 to Nellis Air Force Base,
Nev. A models were used for tactical bombing in Southeast
Asia.
Developed for the U.S. Navy, the F-111B was canceled before its
production. F-111C's are flown by the Royal Australian Air
Force.
The F-111D has improved avionics with better navigation, air-to-air
weapon delivery systems, and newer turbofan engines. The F-111D's
were flown by the 27th Fighter Wing, Cannon Air Force Base,
N.M.
The F-111E model had modified air intakes to improve the engine's
performance at speeds above Mach 2.2. Most F-111Es served with the
20th Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Station Upper Heyford, England,
to support NATO. F-111E's were deployed to Incirlik Air Base,
Turkey, and were used in Operation Desert Storm. In the early
morning of Jan. 17, 1991, the F-111 went into combat again in the
initial bombing raids of Operation Desert Storm. More than 100
F-111 aircraft of different versions joined the first strikes
against Iraq both as bombers and radar jammers.
The F-111F had improved turbofan engines give F-111F models 35
percent more thrust than previous F-111A and E engines. The
avionics systems of the F model combine features of the F-111D and
E. The last F model was delivered to the Air Force in November
1976. The F models were modified to carry the Pave Tack system in
their weapons bays. This system provides an improved capability to
acquire, track and designate ground targets at night for delivery
of laser, infrared and electro-optically guided weapons. The F-111F
was proven in combat over Libya in 1986 and again over Iraq in
1991. Although F-111F's flew primarily at night during Operation
Desert Storm, aircrews flew a particularly notable daytime mission
using the Guided Bomb Unit (GBU-15) to seal the oil pipeline
manifold sabotaged by Iraq, allowing the oil to flow into the
Persian Gulf.
As a result of the Air Force decision to retire the F-111 weapon
system, the 27th Fighter Wing's 74 F-111E/F aircraft began retiring
in late 1995 and were replaced with 54 F-16C/D aircraft. All F-111s
in the Air Force inventory have been retired to the Aerospace
Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The
center, popularly know as the boneyard, was home to all the
remaining F-111E and F models by October 1996.
FB-111
Seventy-six were built as FB-111s and saw service with the
Strategic Air Command until 1990 when they were converted to
F-111Gs and assigned to Tactical Air Command. The F-111G was
assigned to the 27th Fighter Wing at Cannon Air Force Base and was
used in a training role only. The conversion made minor avionics
updates and strengthened the aircraft to allow its use in a more
dynamic role as a fighter aircraft.
EF-111A Raven
Development of the EF-111A Raven began in January 1975 when the Air
Force contracted with Grumman Aerospace to modify two F-111As to
serve as electronic warfare platforms. The F-111s high speed, long
range, substantial payload and reasonable cost made it the ideal
candidate to protect allied tactical forces against enemy radar
defenses.
When converting the aircraft to its new electronic warfare role,
the primary modification was the ALQ-99 jamming system, N/ALQ-137
self-protection system, and an AN/ALR-62 terminal threat warning
system. To accommodate the 6,000 pounds of new electronics, Grumman
added a narrow, 16-foot long canoe-shaped radome under the fuselage
and a din-tip pod mounted on top of the vertical stabilizer.
Grummans EF-111A prototypes staged their first flights in 1977.
After two years of testing the Air Force gave the contractor the
go-ahead to convert 42 F-111As into the EF-111 configuration. The
modifications cost approximately $25 million per aircraft, and the
total cost of the program was $1.5 billion. The first production
EF-111 was delivered to the 388th Tactical Electronic Squadron at
Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, in November 1981 and the aircraft became
fully operational in 1983.
The Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) included the installation
of 10 new subsystems including a doppler radar and internal
navigation system. The modification, installed in all 42 EF-111s,
was completed in 1994. Prompted by a series of crashes attributable
to the failure of the F-111s original analog flight control
system, the installation of Digital Flight Control System begann in
1990 and was completed in 1997.
The last squadron of EF-111s remaining in service, at Cannon AFB,
NM, peformed the Suppression of Enemy Air Defense [SEAD] mission.
DOD decided to retire the EF-111A jammer and replace it with a new
Air Force system, the high speed anti-radiation missile (HARM)
targeting system on the F-16C, and the existing Navy electronic
warfare aircraft, the EA-6B. Recognizing that too few EA-6B
aircraft may be available to meet both Air Force and Navy needs,
DOD retained these 12 EF-111s in the active inventory through 1998,
when additional upgraded EA-6Bs became available.
