UK F-4 DISPOSITIONS
Here’s a query that’s intrigued me for many years, that the Phantom Phaction may be able to answer:
While I was at Leuchars, 43 Sqn was equipped with the FG1 variant of the F-4 and was joined by 111 Sqn using the FGR2, the first FGR2 interceptor sqn. When 892 NAS was disbanded, their redundant FG1s were used to re-equip 111, standardising the FG1 at Leuchars. Reasonable decision on first look.
However, I always wondered why the FG1s were consolidated at Leuchars? I would have thought that, with the INS fit of the FGR2, this would have been the preferred variant for use over the GIUK gap (yes, I’m aware that the INS wasn’t THAT brilliant); surely this would have been of better utility over the North Atlantic/North Sea wastes than the FG1’s single TACAN (where there was no ground based TACANs to use), and which the FGR2 had as well.
Wouldn’t it have been a more rational disposition to have converted 43 to FGR2s and consolidated all the FG1s at, say Wattisham (with its extensive TACAN ground infrastructure in SE England and Europe), or was there a more overriding operational reason?
Any inputs?