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These are a couple drawings I did at a very slow BayCon some years ago. Nothing much was happening and I had just started working on an idea for a Wild Weasel piece so I broke out my sketch book and started drawing. The only thing that sucked was that I did not have ruler so I had to improvise and use a cardboard insert in my con-bag for a straight edge. Also The book I had on the Wild Weasel with me did not have the best photos in the world so I got some details wrong. Oh well.
It takes a certain type of professionalism, courage, training, and craziness to play clay pigeon for SAM batteries but that is what Weasels do. Their objective is to get enemy air defense radars to turn on and attempt to lock on and shoot them down, but then they turn the tables and fire a missile that tracks the radar signal back to its source and destroys it. In theory that is the idea, in real life it is a lot more difficult.
Often in Vietnam the enemies SAM's had much greater range than Shrike or even later Standard missile that the F-4 carried. This meant that the Weasel often had to let the SAM battery get the first shot in. Then attempt to jam or dodge the incoming SAM so they could press home the attack and destroy the enemy site. Often the enemy would recognize a Weasel's attack pattern and shut down its radar right away. This would cause the Shrike or Standard to lose it bearings and wander off course. A missile wasted and there is still a grumpy SAM battery out there. This game of cat and mouse could go on for some time, and sometimes the Weasels could keep the enemies radars shut down just by their presence. This meant that other aircraft in a strike package did not have face the full brunt of the enemy's air defenses.
It takes a certain type of professionalism, courage, training, and craziness to play clay pigeon for SAM batteries but that is what Weasels do. Their objective is to get enemy air defense radars to turn on and attempt to lock on and shoot them down, but then they turn the tables and fire a missile that tracks the radar signal back to its source and destroys it. In theory that is the idea, in real life it is a lot more difficult.
Often in Vietnam the enemies SAM's had much greater range than Shrike or even later Standard missile that the F-4 carried. This meant that the Weasel often had to let the SAM battery get the first shot in. Then attempt to jam or dodge the incoming SAM so they could press home the attack and destroy the enemy site. Often the enemy would recognize a Weasel's attack pattern and shut down its radar right away. This would cause the Shrike or Standard to lose it bearings and wander off course. A missile wasted and there is still a grumpy SAM battery out there. This game of cat and mouse could go on for some time, and sometimes the Weasels could keep the enemies radars shut down just by their presence. This meant that other aircraft in a strike package did not have face the full brunt of the enemy's air defenses.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1001 x 664px
File Size 224.3 kB
And don't forget their service in Desert Storm wasting Saddam's air defenses with the newer AGM-88 HARM missiles. I personally think the multi-shade grey scheme used on F-4G's during Gulf War 1 is one of my favorite F-4 paint schemes, along with the SEA camo scheme on earlier Phantoms. Yet another great piece, your talent at mechanical and biological subjects continues to amaze me, keep it up!
Try to outrun a flying telephone pole with a 58 caddy.... There were to F-4's flying over town last week, too high for me to see the markings. It was good to see them flying again. They re-activated a pair during the first Gulfwar, here from the AMARC boneyard, maybe it's the same two. Great work!
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