Wednesday, 21 June 2017

McDonnell Douglas F-4E - Israeli Users

The Israeli Air Force has been the biggest foreign user of the Phantom II, as they employed both new and second-hand ex-USAF ones as well as some RF-4E.
The first F-4E were denominated Kurnass (Ram) and the RF-4E as Oref (Crow). They were sold in 1969 under the programme Peace Echo I and the rest of them were delivered in the subsequent Peace Echo II to Peace Echo V and Nickel Grass operations.
The Israeli Phantoms saw combat during the Arab-Israeli Conflict. The first Israeli aerial victory of an F-4E was on 11th November 1969 against an Egyptian MiG-21 and the first lost, against a MiG-21 too, happened on 2nd April 1970. During Yom Kippur War of 1973 some F-4E were lost in air-strikes over Syria and the Sinai Peninsula. Later they were used in Lebanon, in the 1982 invasion. According to the Israeli authorities, the F-4E in their service scored 116 victories against 56 losses, most of them against anti-air fire.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#Israel
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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