[4] Since the development of the F-111 was plagued with many setbacks, it was expected that the order for the RAAF would not be ready before 1974, leaving the Australian air force short of a suitable aircraft.

On balance, the F-4 would in theory need to be supported by at least eight Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers to achieve the endurance required in Australian service with in-flight refueling, making the whole package expensive and uneconomical compared to the F-111C with its greater range.

[5] One Phantom (69-7203) was lost in an accident during Australian service, off Evans Head, New South Wales during night bombing practice on 16 June 1971, while the others went on to follow a long career with the United States Air Force, with 21 examples later modified to F-4G Wild Weasel specifications and used by the 35th and 52nd TFWs.

[6] Under the September 1977 Peace Pharaoh agreement, 35 ex-31 TFW F-4Es along with a number of Sparrow, Sidewinder and Maverick missiles were supplied to the EAF for US$594 million and served with 76 and 78 Squadrons of the 222 Fighter Regiment.

In this short time, said air force had already passed through two generations of jet combat aircraft, having bought the North American F-86 Sabre and the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

[13] The Luftwaffe also intended to equip two fighter and two bomber Geschwader ("wings") with a simplified single-seat version of the F-4E Phantom which had already been proposed for the TFX USAF program.

It was equipped with air combat maneuvering leading edge slats and had a higher thrust to weight ratio, approaching 1:1 when fuel was low.

[28] The Nirouye Havai Shahanshahiye Iran (Imperial Iranian Air Force) enjoyed more attention from Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi than any other military branch.

[30] The Iraqi air force performed a very deep strike of more than 837 km (520 mi) inside Iran, but this small formation was intercepted by two Iranian F-4s and one or two MiGs were lost.

[1] The aircraft of an Iranian F-4 pilot who deserted on 31 August 1984 to Saudi Arabia was examined and found to have Israeli and European spare parts installed.

[34] The first aircraft delivered were F-4Es, provided under the "Peace Echo" program, authorized on 7 January 1968, by president Lyndon Johnson, and supported by Senator Robert F.

[34][37] Israeli Phantoms scored 11 air victories during this period although several were lost, mainly to SAMs,[34] but above all they inflicted heavy damage on Egyptian land forces during the War of Attrition.

[45] The IDF also evaluated a re-armed F-4E using installed twin DEFA 30mm cannons internally aft of the engine air intakes and a similar weapon in place of the M61 Vulcan in the nose.

The main updates involved the APG-76 radar, Elbit ACE-3 mission computer, HOTAS, the addition of winglets for increased agility, ASX-1 TISEO and the ability to deploy Popeye missiles.

[54] 301st Hikōtai continued to operate the F-4EJ until 14 December 2020 when the Phantom was withdrawn from front-line service, remaining in use with the Air Development and Test Wing at Gifu.

This boosted their capabilities in the anti-shipping role; filling in for the indigenous Mitsubishi F-1s which were too few in number and lacked range, and the P-3Cs which were too slow, even if well-armed with Harpoon missiles.

[72] This batch of RF-4Cs was updated to the highest USAF standard prior to delivery and had a completely revised avionic suite, including new radios, RWR, VOR and ILS navigation equipment and KS-86 cameras.

[78] Turkey assisted in Desert Storm without entering the fighting directly, by opening their airbases to the Coalition air forces and hosted Belgian Mirages, German Alpha Jets and Italian F-104Gs.

The first Phantoms delivered to the THK had Southeast Asia camouflage colors and TISEO equipment, consisting of a wing-mounted television camera with zoom capacity for spotting targets outside of normal visual range.

[82] Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said "the downing was an accident, caused by the "automatic response" of an officer commanding an anti-aircraft gun.

"[83] The statement went on to claim that the aircraft was found to be a "Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases".

The downing occurred at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries due to Turkish support for Syrian rebels opposed to the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus.

[91] Turkey considered more sophisticated supersonic fighters like the F-15 Eagle or Panavia Tornado to be too expensive; instead, the THK decided to upgrade its Phantom fleet with improvements to avionics and structure, but not to the engines.

[78] Small strakes above the air intakes to improve agility, new attachment fittings, engine mountings, stronger wing fold ribs, updated canopy sill bar, 12 mi (20 km) of wiring replaced (reducing weight by 1,653 lb/750 kg) as well as most hydraulic and pneumatic lines and hoses, and fuel tank reinforcements.

[92] New multifunction display in the front cockpit plus two in the rear, new Kaiser El-OP 976 wide-angle HUD and HOTAS system, high-performance Elta EL/M-2032 ISAR-capable high-resolution SAR/GMTI (ground moving target indicator) multi-mode fire-control radar (developed for the IAI Lavi), IAIC mission computer, new navigation equipment including GPS/INS connected to mapping mode, dual MIL-STD-553B databus managing avionics package, Astronautics Central Air Data Computer, new UHF and IFF packages, airborne video tape recorder (AVTR), Elta EL/L-8222 active ECM pod and Mikes (Aselsan) AN/ALQ-178V3 passive embedded SPEWS, and RWR.

Fleet Air Arm Phantoms were fitted with a double-telescoping front landing gear strut that could extend 40 in (100 cm), the increased angle of attack being necessary for catapult launches from the smaller British carriers.

[5] A Spey-powered Phantom was not a new concept: McDonnell Douglas had considered the idea to meet the USAF TFX requirement, later satisfied by the General Dynamics F-111.

[99] With the cancellation of home-grown programmes and the need to replace the Hawker Hunter and English Electric Canberra in the ground-attack and tactical reconnaissance roles, the RAF ordered 118 aircraft in 1965.

However, when the SEPECAT Jaguar entered service from 1974 onwards, the Phantom FGR.2s were redeployed in the air defence role, replacing English Electric Lightnings with Nos.

With the Tornado ADV still some years from operational service, the RAF purchased 15 second-hand former U.S. Navy F-4J aircraft, chosen from among the best stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and upgraded to a level almost equal to the F-4S.