Before the October 1973 conflict, the United States had been delivering Phantoms at the rate of two per month. When war erupted, Operation Nickel Grass followed, through which F-4Es pulled directly from the U. S. inventory were ferried to Israel and immediately thrown into battle, once modified with the Israeli-style refueling receptacle on the right front in place of the U.S.-style dorsal receptacle. One TISEO-equipped late model F-4E actually flew into combat still wearing an SJ tail code telling the world that it had just arrived from Colonel Len C. Russell’s 4th Thactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

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Thirty-four Phantoms were added to Israel’s inventory through Operation Nickel Grass. Counting further purchases made after the 1973 fighting, Israel received 204 Phantoms in all.

Iran used the reconnaissance version of the Phantom to keep tabs on what was happening nearby. On a reconnaissance mission over South Yemen in 1977, an Iranian RF-4E was shot down by a rebel shoulder-mounted missile and went down in one fathom of crystal-clear Gulf water, where it remains easily seen from boats and aircraft to this day.

When the Iran-Iraq war broke out on September 23, 1980, with spectacular long-range raids, Iraqi aircraft strafed and destroyed an Iranian F-4E on the ground at Tehran. It was a bizarrelooking loss, the nose of the Phantom broken off like a bottle stem.

U.S. intelligence analysts told each other that the Ayatollah’s air arm, now know as the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), would be destroyed with similar dispatch. The best pilots and the best maintenance people had been loyal to the Shah and had been purged. U.S. intelligence was convinced that the revolutionaries then running the IRIAF lacked the knowledge and the equipment to keep sophisticated Phantoms flying.

What’s more, the experts said, the revolutionary air arm lacked the expertise to solve problems with the avion ics–the radar. The revolutionaries would never be able to maintain something as complex as a J79 jet engine or a Westinghouse APQ-120 solid-state radar firecontrol system. The IRIAF was likely to be grounded quickly. The war would be short.

They were wrong on all counts, including being wrong about why the Phantoms were difficult to keep in the air. The real problem was tires. Some way could be found to fix the unfixable, the radar and fire-control system included, but with the West’s embargo around Iran, not even the Ayatollah could solve the problem posed by normal wear on rubber tires of a unique size. The Israelis could, however. Cooperation between Jerusalem and Tehran in keeping the latter’s Phantoms flying was one of the most unusual partnerships’in recent history.

While some air arms have no future planned for their Phantoms other than for museum display, Israel is devoting considerable effort to updating its Phantom fleet. The effort began with Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) embarking on two upgrade programs. The Super Phantom program involved the re-engining of F-4Es with Pratt & Whitney PW1120 turbofan engines, giving a dramatic increase in performance. A modified Phantom equipped with one PW1120 and one traditional J79 first flew on April 24, 1987. Subsequently, tests got underway with a Phantom with two PW1120s that appeared at the June 1987 Paris air show.

The production version of Israel’s upgraded Phantom 2000 also has new advanced multimode radar, a wide field of view HUD (head-up display), multifunction displays for both crewmen, a new computerized weapon delivery system and improved radios. In the 1990s, its one-time plans for an indigenous fighter called the Lavi having been canceled, Israel’s air arm will rely upon the F-15C Eagle for the air-to-air role, F-16 Fighting Falcon for both air and ground action, and the rejuvenated Phantom for the fighter-attack mission. The Phantom 2000 will overcome the Phantom’s principal handicap-the dramatic strides made in fighter radars since the F-4E model was introduced in 1966. Meanwhile, Israel also employs the Phantom for a variety of test missions, including development work on the Gabriel Mark 3 anti-shipping missile.

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