RE: XV474
The CFE treaty simply limits the number of conventional weapons a country can have, split into an enormous array of categories. One of which is of course ´combat aircraft.´ Somewhere around 1990 the regulations got into service, and since most (if not all) countries which had signed had more aircraft available than allowed by CFE standards, aircraft had to be scrapped. The sickening thing is that even withdrawn aircraft fell under CFE ´jurisdiction´ so it was pretty convenient for most airforces to scrap only those aircraft which were withdrawn, or were going to be withdrawn.
As the RAF was already in the process of retiring it´s Phantom fleet that aircraft (together with the Buccaneer) bore the brunt of RAF´s race to comply with the treaty. The same happened in Italy with their G91s, and in the former Soviet Union with almost everything nice (Yak-28, Su-15… 🙁 )
WARNING! SHOCKING CONTENT BELOW!
Typical for CFE-scrapped aircraft is that they are chopped up into three pieces (forward, central and rear fuselage with often the wings chopped of as well) and then left for a while. This to ease inspection, either by sattelite or inspection teams (the latter also check operational aircraft. Those guys really are planespotters by profession). Only after some three months are the remains allowed to go to the smelter – although Italy has shown the courtesy to weld a bunch of Ginas back together again for display purposes (of course the separate parts often were part of different aircraft 😛 ). IIRC something similar was tried with an RAF Phantom as well, but those were chopped up in such locations that making a complete bird was structurally almost impossible.
Oh, and when RAF Wildenrath was cleared a bunch of Phantoms was simply blown up (more horror: the few Lightings remaining there as decoy or for BDRT were horridly overrun by shovels).
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