[QUOTE]has anybody taken into account the US Naval Air Force. The Navy always had at least one carrier battle group in the Med and severall more within several days’ sailing from the European mainland. Also, let’s not forget that the CAGs were equipped with (arguably) the best air superiority fighter of the time, the F-14 Tomcat. This beast was armed with the longest ranged AAM on the planet Earth, and had suffecient range to operate from the carriers, fly to the mainland, do a CAP mission, and return.

Bugga. Beat me to it. i was going to suggest NATO naval superiority, esp the USN backed by the RN and others. Aircraft carriers would be prime assests here, as well ae targets of course. Ronnie Reagan wanted to establish a 600 vessel USN force in the 80’s.

That said, the Soviet submarine force as well as those Tu-22M’s could be a major headache though….

I would say that the F-111 differences are mainly technological, even if its designation marks it as a century fighter. The F-111 provided and introduced many items adopted as standard in later fighters such as afterburning turbofans, HUD’s and digital electronics (F-111D).

This in my view marks a big divide between the F-111 and previous fighters / attackers.

I think the YF-23 would make an excellent F-117 AND F-15E replacement….

No they did not make an F-103. Nor an F-108 for that matter. The F-103 was proposed as a Mach 3+ interceptor and the F-108 was another Mach 3+ interceptor proposal. The F-107 was actually flown as prototype and was flown head to head against the F-105. Think of the F-107 as the YF-23 of its time….

I personally like the F-105 as well, but the F-106 and F-111 are perhaves my faves.

Does the F-117 count as a century fighter…. 😉

Byy the way, I think the Brazillians named their Mirage III’s “F-103’s”.

The Ukrain may well end up buying the same future jets Russia ends up developing, albeit in smaller numbers. That said, the Su-27 will last a good while longer yet. They’ll have to….

Shows how big the F-105 really was, esp for a single engined type. I think it was even longer than an F-4E or F-15

That sounds like film footage I’ve seen of an F-111 dropping 600 gal tanks. They seem to get caught up in the F-111’s slipstream and smash into the F-111’s tailplane….you actually see bits coming from the F-111!!!!