bucklehead

I haven’t seen it in close to 20 years, but the Great Santini has some great F-4 phootage. Sully has some F-4E scenes in it. Hamburger Hill featured some F-4Es from what I like to believe, Clark AB dropping Hollywood “Napalm” in a few scenes. Then there’s this classic. I remember seeing it as a school kid on one of my dads VHS mixtapes from his time in the AF. Edit - Oh! I forgot the ultimate cheese. Iron Eagle II has F-4Es featured as MiGs hahaha

USAF F-4E with the 526th out of Ramstein AB, Germany.

We are hours away from seeing the video. Hopefully some good news!

@exhausted The F-4E is a great variant with a great history, variety of weapons and mission sets. I and many others are excited for the F-4E, and hope that your preferred USN and British variants eventually appear.

I seen that video earlier this week. Very well done. I think perhaps while researching the F-4E, Heatblur ran across F-105D documents and got sidetracked starting work on the Thud - hence the delay of the Phantom.

You could realistically save yourself some finger stress and leave this thread. I pray you find peace.

Bring it!!!

F

I deployed for a year looking forward to the F-4 being released upon my return. Checked every week for an update. I hope my leave doesn’t run out before it releases!

If the USAF thought it was an incredible waste of effort, I doubt they would’ve took the time to bring them all the way from PACAF. That said, you could argue the Marines realized that the F-4S would be a complete waste of resources and left them behind. Since we’re now talking DCS scenarios, placing a F-14B or F/A-18C on a carrier or forward base is much better than sending F-4S paltry into the grinder.

I would argue that the F-4S and the F-4E, especially in the late 80s early 90s filled two different roles for two different services, and as a result you get two different variations designed to prioritize different things. In 1992, the Hornet, as disgusting as it is, had pretty much replaced the Phantom in USMC use. If it was to play such a critical role in Marine Air, even all the way up to 92, I would have expected it to play a role in Desert Storm where the US pretty much brought everything. It did not. I believe that you believe the F-4S is much cooler. That’s cool!

The RF-4C guys may have something to say about that.

In what capacity is the F-4S a much better fit aligning in timeframe and doctrine than the F-4E? If the F-4E went out the door in 91, and the F-4S in 92, the timeframe argument doesn’t make much sense to me. Doctrinally wise, are we talking about use case? If so, both had replacements already in service. Both the MiG-29 and Su-27 came into service in the mid 80’s, well within the operational window of the F-4E. I don’t think you’re a fan of the F-4E, or at least it’s not your first pick - that’s fine. We all need to show Heatblur that there is demand for more Phantom variants.

Last I checked, it was USAF F-4Es that made it into Desert Storm. Where was the F-4S?

Since we have the Marianas map, and I’ve already suggested the Clark F-4Es, the other big user in PACAF would be the Phantoms out of Korea.

As long as we get several paint schemes of the Phantoms from Clark, I’ll be happy.

Crashing here as well.

Ok, that makes sense. I recall a very violent pitch up and then tumbling. I’ll turn it off and continue flying and see what happens.

Had something similar tonight while playing a TTI SP mission. Killed two MiG-31s with 530s. Found a MiG-21, locked him up for a magic shot, then thought it’s too easy, brought up the guns. Had them in continuous fire mode. Squeezed off a few shots and missed. Probably 3-4 bursts, and then shot again. Next thing I know I’m spinning towards the ground. Hit pause and notice that part of my right wing is missing. Eject, watch the MiG fly off. Quit mission, find the only thing mentioned is Right RWR failure. Glad it’s not just me!

You got it! You’re work on the Viper skin has decisively embarrassed EDs efforts.

Hey bud. Downloaded the latest iteration of your Wolf Pack skin. Love it except for some reason you got the National insignia on the wings reversed.

Oh man. I was looking forward to these. You would think that they would have figured out the National insignia. When the Viper first released it was wrong. And now with more skins, it’s still wrong. All is not lost however. Pretty sure most of these skins reside on the user files download section.

Would love to see Phantom variants in the game. The F-4E is fine, but if they included an F-4S I wouldn’t complain either. The problem I see is that the F-4E they chose from what I understand is modeled after the last variant the USAF flew in the early 90s. Which means we’re probably waiting on Tpod fixes and other additional sensors/weapons. Additionally, any work they’ve done so far will probably need to be redone by the time the model starts back up as their quality of work has increased. To round it out, they’re probably gonna end up creating their own version of HBs JESTER. Once that is all done and the F-4E drops, for them to make an F-4S would require a new model or at the very least an extensive rebuild in addition to changes in the FM. Oh - and then integration into their super carrier module. To get both an F-4E and F-4S in one package for $70 isn’t gonna happen with ED. I can see the F-4E going for $70. I can see the F-4S going for $70 and maybe a $10 off for the F-4J which would also be in the store for $70.

Might as well include the F-14B as a stand in for the F-14A. Believe they got in on the tail end of the war providing CAP for the final withdrawal. Additionally, you could probably use it with limited loadouts (AIM-9 and AIM-7) for a Phantom stand in. It carries bombs, goes fast in the vertical. With as much as your plan involves using other things as stand ins, maybe it’s possible to do a 1978 Vietnam War II and draw up fictional liveries while limiting loadouts. F-15A and F-16A in SEA camouflage. Slap ANG on the F-86 skins and we’re good haha