It was operated exclusively by the United States Air Force (USAF); its crews and maintainers often called it the "Spark-Vark", a play on the F-111's "Aardvark" nickname.

[N 1] The USAF had opted to develop a derivative of the F-111 due to its greater penetrating power over the Navy / Marine Corps Grumman EA-6B Prowler.

The resulting aircraft retained numerous systems of the F-111A and lacked armaments, relying entirely upon its speed and electronic warfare capabilities.

The type was retired during May 1998 amid the military cutbacks enacted under the peace dividend at the end of the Cold War.

The withdrawn aircraft were initially placed in storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona; most EF-111s have since been scrapped while four have been put on static display.

In the late 1960s, the United States Air Force (USAF) sought to replace its aging EB-66 and EB-57 electronic warfare aircraft.

[3] During January 1974, the USAF awarded electronic warfare study contracts to the aerospace companies Grumman and General Dynamics.

It was not capable of firing anti-radiation missiles in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) role, which was a tactical limitation.

[14] However, it is disputed whether there was an enemy present at the time, as two F-15Es watched Ratchet 75 make violent evasive maneuvers and crash into the ground, with no hostile aircraft in the area.

[10] The last deployment of the Raven was a detachment of EF-111s stationed at Al Kharj/Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia until April 1998.

[7] Shortly afterward, the USAF began withdrawing the final EF-111As from service, and placed them in storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona.