Ed Rasimus wrote:

On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 03:39:28 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote:

Ed Rasimus wrote:

snip

Impossible to fly a combat weapons delivery sortie in either airplane
without a second crewmember. (Note that the F-4 can be flown quite
nicely solo as the Thunderbirds did, but not as a weapon system.)

Ed, you couldn't make a manual delivery in the F-4E using only the front seat?
(Not that I'm buying any of JGG's fantasies, just wondering). I can see no
reason why you couldn't in an F-4C, and probably the same holds true for a D or E
as well. All the switches you'd need are in the F/C/P. If you wanted to make a
radar-assisted delivery that's another matter, and I'm sure that both accuracy
and safety were improved during manual deliveries at night by having the GIB call
out the 3 As during a pass, but he doesn't seem essential.

Of course you could get bombs off with a manually depressed reticle.
But, your INS is still telling you distance back to home plate, you've
had no nav updates for the length of the sortie. You've got no radar,
since you can't get out of standby to even access a boresight A/A lock
on. You've got no ECM operative, although you can turn your RWR on.

Okay, that's what I thought. Actually, I've been told on reasonably good authority
that the Israelis occasionally flew A/G missions with only the front seat occupied, if
they were short of bods. I imagine they'd try to restrict that to CAS, but can't say
for sure. And at least in SVN, I don't believe having an operative radar (or ECM) was
mission essential equipment for the CAS role -- between the radar stations and TACAN
you could find your way to the FAC. Certainly that would be the case for the F-100
units, who lacked either capability in the first place. In any case, operable
Radar/ECM doesn't seem seem to have been required for the Marines, and I hope Walt
will chime in on what policy was for the 366th.

It simply makes no sense. If you've got a mission critical enough that
you've taken a system off the operational line and painted it black,
why wouldn't you put a bod in the R/C/P. It isn't to minimize number
of folks in the loop, because you've got a passle full of ground
support troops to arm, fuel and launch the bird.

As I said, I wasn't buying into JGG's fevered imagination, just wondering about your
blanket comment that it was "impossible to fly a combat weapons delivery without a
second crewman."

Guy