Anti-Ship Weapons?

[NoodI]

Could the F-4E or any naval/other variants carry any Anti-Ship weapons?

Edited December 20, 2022 by NoodI

[RevampedGrunt]

Not sure if there's any other but the F-4EJ was able to carry ASM-1. 

[Czechnology]

USAF to my understanding, so I might be wrong, has generally had an extremely limited anti-ship missile inventory. I do know that today, the USAF (Not the USN) doctrinally uses bombs, preferably guided, to destroy boats but they probably wouldn't shirk from flinging a Maverick, I think that doctrine has held for awhile.

Just a general decision of "The navy sinks big boats", because realistically the biggest boat the USAF should ever have to deal with on their own without some sort of carrier sinking catastrophe is probably riverine in nature and small.

I'm not sure the Harpoon was ever mated to Phantoms, but if we're going to get an ASM, I'd say the US F-4E isn't going to get them. USN F-4J or N? Maybe? 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Czechnology

[Czechnology]

Just poking around and trying to confirm what all I just said. Some b-52s were made Harpoon capable, brand new F-15EX planes have the capability, and F-16s have the capability. To my understanding all but the B-52 were given the capability for export market shenanigans though, and again, USAF doesn't seem to use the missiles much themselves and leave the blue water big ship engagements to the Navy

[F-2]

2 hours ago, RevampedGrunt said:

Not sure if there's any other but the F-4EJ was able to carry ASM-1. 

ASM-2 as well. F-4EJ was quite capable in the anti shipping role.

[RevampedGrunt]

1 hour ago, F-2 said:

ASM-2 as well. F-4EJ was quite capable in the anti shipping role.

It makes sense with the fact that Japan is an Island nation. It'd need aircraft capable of taking out enemy ships, whether it's transports or destroyers.

[Biggus]

The Mk36 mine is certainly listed in the F-4J/S natops.  Might not be quite what you were thinking of.  There's also some detail about using the Sparrow against small boats in the tactical manual for the B/J/N.  Other than that, the Mk20 was often carried by naval attack aircraft to deal with smaller vessels.

[Bozon]

18 hours ago, Czechnology said:

USAF to my understanding, so I might be wrong, has generally had an extremely limited anti-ship missile inventory. I do know that today, the USAF (Not the USN) doctrinally uses bombs, preferably guided, to destroy boats but they probably wouldn't shirk from flinging a Maverick, I think that doctrine has held for awhile.

Also, ships on land are notoriously difficult to sink.

[Yannick Pancake]

3 hours ago, Bozon said:

Also, ships on land are notoriously difficult to sink.

Well... I would argue that this only depends on the size of you unaliver-machine 

[commiccannon]

10 hours ago, Bozon said:

Also, ships on land are notoriously difficult to sink.

Apparenlty trains on the other hand are pretty easy to sink, just ask the USS Barb

[Omega417]

11 hours ago, Bozon said:

Also, ships on land are notoriously difficult to sink.

There are more planes in the sea, than there are submarines in the sky.

[Dragon1-1]

TASMO is a thing in the USAF, however I'm pretty sure they'd just use Mavs and/or bombs, both of which are available on the Phantom. USAF is very much capable of sinking big ships, it just doesn't have any weapons strictly dedicated to the task.

[Heinlein]

The phantom did not have any spesific anti ship weapons. During the Iran-Iraq war, IRAF used high/low drag  bombs as well as Mavericks against tankers in the Persian gulf. 

[Northstar98]

Bombs are probably your best bet (be it dumb bombs or LGBs, such as the Paveway I and II series).

[Bremspropeller]

You can always nuke a boat. And even if you miss, the resulting wave will leave a mark.

[_BringTheReign_]

1 hour ago, Bremspropeller said:

You can always nuke a boat. And even if you miss, the resulting wave will leave a mark.

hahaha

Chinese so called "carrier killer" ASBM's enter the chat

This makes me curious if there were anti-ship nuclear missiles back in the day, a la genie, etc.. I might need to do some googling!

[BuzzLine]

23 minutes ago, _BringTheReign_ said:

if there were anti-ship nuclear missiles back in the day

Plenty. And nuke depth charges, too. And artillery shells. Anything vaguely large enough to contain a nuke, they put a nuke on them at some point (see Davy Crockett nuclear recoilless rifle).
In case you never heard of it, you may be interested in looking up Operation Crossroads and the effects of nukes on ships made with actual battle steel.