What significance did the F-8u play in the Vietnam War? Most of the combat was done using F-5s, A-4s and F-4JsWhat was the point of having an air superiority jet when the F-5 could fill that role better and still do bombing runs, especially with the onset of air to air missiles
>>61992627Anon, the F-5 wasn't a carrier fighter. The F-8 is. >But muh f-4The F-8 filled a different role. It was an air superiority fighter and could operate off the older refit Essex class. The F-4 was a fleet defense interceptor and operated off super carriers.
>>61992652The F-4 was a mess when it entered service, the f-8 was a guns first air superiority jet, in an era where we started using air to air missiles, even being carrier based
>>61992627F-8s could be operated off of the older refit carriers still in service whereas the F-4 couldn't. Also the F-5 was not a major player in Vietnam, at least for the US; it was intended as an export fighter whereas the USAF favored heavier jets and exceptionally few units were equipped with F-5s (notwithstanding the comparison with the F-8 being inappropriate anyway, as the F-8 is a carrier fighter and the F-5 is not)
>>61992627When is Growling Sidewinder going to make some videos about this?
>>61992681>The F-4 was a mess when it entered serviceThe F-4 was perfectly serviceable but it was held back by:>poor USAF situational awareness with gaps in radar coverage and little SIGINT>weapons control layout was set up for shooting down bombers which meant having to look down and not out of the plane (losing sight of the enemy)>ROE mandating visual IFF>USAF sidewinders were frankly shit early on and Sparrow maintenance lead to dudsI know I'm doing a "if things weren't so bad they'd be good" line of copium but hindsight is 20/20 and I'm using that visual acuity to its fullest.Allowing myself the "if" game, if:- The USAF had upgraded their Sidewinders like the Navy did- They did not neglect Sparrow maintenance- There was a TISEO system from the start to allow visual IFF from longer range and comply with strick ROE- A layout more in line with hands on throttle and stick rather than panel switches forcing the pilot to look down to engage- Actually force intelligence to tell USAF what the North Vietnamese are saying and create radar coverage to see ambushes coming across the border rather than constantly getting jumped from the startYou wouldn't hear "Phantom was a mess" or "muh gun" for decades. Yeah, I'm basically saying "if they didn't things wrong and did most things right they'd have better success" but the point is that the Phantom was set up for failure by the conditions it was operating under, and when it finally got what it needed the Phantom splashed MiGs just fine.
