Why Were All F-4 Phantoms Converted to Drones and Destroyed?

>military wants drones for drone shit
>has existing airframes that aren't doing anything else

EDIT: Meant to say all U.S. F-4 Phantoms

>>33765459
They were all haunted so nobody wanted to fly them

>>33765459
>have old air frames and old engines
>have new weapons that need testing
What do you think?

ya but why not sell them to other countries?

>>33765478
because even poor monkey banana republics aren't looking at old jets anymore
http://www.manilalivewire.com/2015/04/philippines-acquisition-of-f16-v-fighter-jet-from-the-us-blocked-by-china/

>>33765459

Can't be surplussed off because it could drop a nuke.

Still flyable

Need flying targets

Rig it up to fly sans pilot.

>>33765478
the cost of maintaining 30+ year old jets is prohibitive. Better to buy new.

>>33765464
>>33765618
Basically this.
>>33765471
>Phantom II
>haunted
2spooky

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>>33765459
They're ancient at this point. At least they're still in active service elsewhere.

>>33765588

Out of curiosity, why does it matter if it can drop a nuke of none of the countries you're selling it to have any nukes, much less one that's specifically F-4 compatible? How much can it matter besides the hardpoint mount and the wiring? You'd think if they made their own nukes they'd just make them compatible to any plane they had and it wouldn't matter if it was an F-4 or not

Not all of them.

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/aircrafts/f-4d-phantom/

>>33765704
is that one airworthy? or just a static display

Its cuz Iran still operates these and we don't want spare parts getting in their hands. The same thing happened with the F-14 Tomcat

>>33765694

One of the treaties we signed with Russia if I remember correctly said you can't sell shit that could drop a nuke to the public.

>>33765459
Dude, it was way too expensive to use the F-22s as drones. Duh.

>>33766237

Iran has F-4's still in service from the Shah.

Just saying.

Over 100 air to air losses in the jet age, it brings shame to its family.

>>33765459

They're too old to fix.

>>33765459
I was working at Edwards AFB in CA and saw F4 try to land with the left gear stuck up. Pilot made it out safe, but the plane ended up crashing in the dirt next the runway. No idea what the hell they're still testing with those.

>>33766237
Can't basically anything drop a nuke? I mean, you could put a nuke in a Cesna and just toss it out the door if it's small enough.

Because the F35 replaces ALL planes

>>33766347
They were all retired before most people on /k/ were born, nothing to do with the F35

>>33766337
you have to have software compatible with the bomb to trigger the arming of the device

Anything can drop one, not all can arm and drop.

The reason to avoid this is to prevent enemies from reverse engineering a way to de-activate a bomb based on your tech

>>33765459
Not sure it if it airworthy, but the commemorative airforce has one.

>>33766347
of all 3 variants it's only really replacing legacy hornets and harriers, it will be flying alongside everything else.

>>33766337
Yes. You can buy F4s too, you just have to find them. Raptor Aviation has like 4 or 5 gor 40k a piece, you just have to pay the import fees.

>>33766074
this is a factor. theres shitty countries out there using our old shit, so wed rather not supply them with parts on the open market

>>33766382
Oh yeah? What kind of operating system and software was the Enola Gay running?

>>33766398
Largely replacing the f-16 too, just not right now.

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>>33766376

>>33766424
His name is Dr. Faggot what do you expect. He prolly got his degree sucking cock at nigger university

>>33766416
stupidly over simplistic answer from you there.
Would you compare a childs cheeseboard circuit to a modern I7 processor? Thats your level of response.

>>33766422
F-16s are being converted into drones and being destroyed as well

>>33766486
Your an idiot. The point I was making is you don't need some advanced computer system to detonate a Nuke. Take a look at the little boy bomb. It was basically a cannon that shot a slug of enriched uranium. It was so simple we didn't even need to test it.

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>>33766337
imagine the lulz trying to get the fuck away from dodge when you dropped the nuke and you realize the plane ain't fast enough

>>33766520
It was also 0.25kt, as compared to the multi megaton devices we have now, where the timings needed for the detonation are precisely controlled

Fighter airframes are designed and built flight hour limited, after the safe amount of flight hours has passed you can extend the life of the plane but maintenance has to be more extensive and thus more expensive, drones probably have less maintenance concerns as there is no pilot whose life is on the line if the fuselage stress fractures in the middle

>>33766491
There are also discussions on replacing our F-15C's with F-16s.

>>33767493
>drones probably have less maintenance concerns as there is no pilot whose life is on the line if the fuselage stress fractures in the middle
It's more because they're not expected to land.

>>33766074
Unlike F-14, F-4 is plenty popular with other countries. South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Greece still operate them

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>>33766382
>The reason to avoid this is to prevent enemies from reverse engineering a way to de-activate a bomb based on your tech

What, are enemy skydivers going to catch up to the bomb midflight, saddle up a la Slim Pickins, jack in a laptop, hack it, then pull 'chutes?

>>33768047
Wait, am I right that QF drones don't land?

They're take-off then get shot, right?

>>33768086
Apparently the QF-16s can land, don't know about the QF4IIs

>>33766553
>0.25kt
25kt, you were off by a couple orders of magnitude.

>multi megaton devices
W61 (gravity bomb) is 100kt max, SLBM HTK warheads max out at 800kt. Only multi-megaton yield weapons in US stocks are disassembled weapons stored for Planetary Defense (nuking asteroids).

No need for heavy and expensive megaton yield weapons when you can actually hit the target.

>>33768064
South Korean F-4s are so old that they fly less then the Nork MiG-29s.

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>>33765459
>tfw this thread reminds me of a UH1-H Huey and an F8U Crusader thats for display near the local bank
>mfw the city administration left them to rot full of vine, vandalized by graffiti from the local cacos, and let the algae take over their windows
I fucking swear if they are still airworthy, I'd buy them in a heartbeat if I have the money in order to restore them. With all the local business and factories closed down, I would bet they're desperate enough to sell two given aircraft that they won't even bother to take care of