RAF Anti-Cannon??? This is a bit of a novel, but my take on it.
Without actually reading the any of the Operational Requirements which are raised before any piece of equipment is procured or developed, there is no way that this statement can stand up. The first issue is what was the aircraft actually bought to do? In the case of the Phantom, Lightning F3 and other Gun-less fast jet air to air combat aircraft developed in the late 1950's, they were built to be all weather interceptors, not dog fighters. The main threat was the high altitude / high speed long range (possibly supersonic) bomber armed with a large yield free fall Thermonuclear weapon or rocket / jet powered stand off weapon, again armed with a megaton class H-Bomb. The interceptor's weapon had to be powerful enough to stop the bomber in its tracks, before its crew had chance to decide "we're a goner, let's release the weapon and take out as many of the enemy as we can with us" (that possibility is mentioned in Air Staff documents from the 1950's). Even if the bomb landed in open county or over the sea, the fallout from a ground burst high yield weapon would cause massive casualties over a very wide area (plue the weapon would trash most stuff within a 10 to 20 mile radius). The cannon didn't have the punch to do that, so the move to the 'Mighty Mouse' Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket (FFAR) by the USAF and then the Guided Missile (plus final option of the AIR-2 Nuclear unguided rocket). How did the USAF know this, well for starters they were the main victim of unguided air to air rocket attacks by the Germans against the B-17's and B-24's in WWII (Would they have not used it if they knew that it wasn't quite effective), plus they had flown B-47's over Russia in the early 1950's, some of which had been engaged by Mig-17's and had managed to get home with some holes in them (the B-47 gunner wasn't allowed to shoot back either).
The NATO War plan until 1968 was pretty much all out nuclear war from the start and killing Bombers was the primary objective of the Air Defence fighter forces. Most of the Tactical Fighters that would have been able to get into the fight would have been carrying small tactical nuclear weapons to attack targets on the edge of Soviet territory.
Lets actually look at what was built and deployed by a number of nations from say the mid 1950s onward.
USAF (I'll start with century series, there were FFAR only armed aircraft in the F-80 /90 series (F-86D Sabre for example, though all of the aircraft that were fitted with that armament were Interceptors / Night Fighters (you will see those words a lot)):-
F-100 - 20mm Cannon x 4 - Tactical Fighter.
F-101A - 20mm Cannon x 4 - Tactical Fighter.
F-101B - Falcon Missile / Nuclear Air to Air Rocket - Interceptor.
F-102 - Falcon Missile / Nuclear Air to Air missile / FFAR - Interceptor.
F-103 - Falcon Missile / Nuclear Air to Air missile / FFAR - Mach 3 Interceptor (not built).
F-104 - M61 Vulcan 20mm Cannon x 1, Sidewinder - Tactical Fighter.
F-105 - M61 Vulcan 20mm Cannon x 1 - Tactical Fighter.
F-106 - Falcon Missile / Nuclear Air to Air Rocket - Interceptor (M61 Vulcan 20mm Cannon x 1 replaced the AIR-2 in upgrade).
F-107 - 20mm Cannon x 2 - Tactical Fighter. (not procured).
F-108 - 20mm Cannon x 4 / Long range Conventional and Super Falcon Nuclear Air to Air missile x 3 - Interceptor (not built).
F-109 - 20mm Cannon x 4 - VTOL Fighter design (not built).
F-110 - Pre 1962 designation for USAF F-4 C/D. Missile only (because the USN primary use for it was as an Interceptor), Later got SSU 16 / SSU 23A pods as Interim fit, followed by 1xM61 in the E version's and beyond.
F-111 - USAF Tactical Bomber (M61 could be fitted in Weapons bay of USAF F-111D).
For the USN navy, only the Phantom and F-111B were gun less.
F7U Cutless - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sparrow I AAM - Interceptor/Tactical fighter.
F-8 Crusader - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sidewinder AAM - Day Interceptor/Tactical fighter.
F3H/F-6 Demon - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sparrow III / Sidewinder AAM - Interceptor/Tactical fighter.
F-4 Phantom II - Sparrow III / Sidewinder AAM - all-weather fleet defense interceptor.
F3D/F-10 Skyknight - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sparrow I AAM - all-weather (Night) fighter.
F4D/F-6 Skyray - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sidewinder AAM - Day Interceptor / Tactical fighter.
F11F/F-11 Tiger - 4 x 20mm Cannon, Sidewinder AAM - Day Interceptor
F-111B - 6 x Phoenix AAM - Fleet Defence Fighter. Cancelled.
Have the Russians built and put into service a fighter without a gun??? Yes lots of them, again all primary interceptors.
Su-9 - Missile only - interceptor,
Su-11 - Missile only - interceptor.
SU-15 - Missile / 23mm Cannon Pod x 2 - interceptor.
Tu-128 - Missile only - interceptor.
Mig-25 - Missile only - interceptor.
Yak-25 - 23mm Cannon - interceptor.
Yak-28 - Missile Only - interceptor.
Yak-38 - Missile / Gun Pod - VTOL Fighter.
All the rest of the Migs and SU's have some form of 23/30/37mm Cannons.
As for the UK?? Only 3 aircraft not fitted with a cannon (Don't count TSR 2 and Buccaneer as they were strike aircraft, The USN A-5 and A-6 didn't have a gun either). One was 1!!!! version of the Lightning, the other was the Sea Vixen, while the third didn't have a gun fitted to it when the RAF bought it, and that only happened because the Navy got it first (i.e. Phantom) and the internal armed cannon version wasn't even on the drawing board yet. RAF made sure that their FGR-2 could carry the SSU-23 pod when it finally came on the scene in the late 1960s.
Hunter - 4 x 30mm Cannon - Day fighter / Interceptor / Ground Attack - RAF.
Swift - 2x 30mm Cannon (some marks had 4) - Interceptor - RAF.
Javelin FAW1 - FAW 5 - 4 x 30mm cannon - All Weather Fighter - RAF.
Javelin FAW6 - FAW9 - 2x 30mm cannon, 4 x SRAAM (Firestreak / Red Top) - All Weather Fighter - RAF.
Scimitar F1 - 4 x 30mm Cannon, Sidewinder - Day fighter / Attack / Strike - RN.
Sea Vixen FAW1/2 - FFAR / 4 x SRAAM - All Weather Fighter - RN.
Lightning F1/F2/F6/50 series 2 x 30mm Cannon , 2 x SRAAM. F3 - Missiles only (only 70 built, over 10% modified to F6) - Fighter - RAF.
Phantom FG 1 - Sparrow III / Sidewinder AAM / Rocket pod only - Fighter / Attack. RN/RAF.
Phantom FGR 2 - Sparrow III (Skyflash) / Sidewinder AAM / Gun Pod pod - Tactical Fighter, later air defence. RAF.
AFGV - 2x 30mm Cannon (not built). RAF
Tornado - 27mm Cannon x 2 (GR 1), X1 (F2/F3/GR4) Nil (GR1A/GR4A)
Interdiction / Strike - Interceptor - Reconnaissance- RAF.
Harrier GR 1/3, Sea Harrier FRS 1 / FA 2 - 30mm Cannon x 2 (in pods) - Ground Attack / Strike Fighter - RAF / RN.
Harrier GR 5 - 9 - 25 mm Cannon x 2 (Cancelled) - Ground Attack - RAF /RN.
Typhoon - 27mm Cannon x 1 - Multi Role Fighter - RAF. Gun issue in early 2000's is a bit complicated but was resolved.
RAF Anti - Cannon!!! Hardly, not backed up by the evidence. As for Engines comments about the Air Staff, They are not the experts, the people at Farnbrough and Boscome Down were paid to do the modelling tasks and stuff like that and provide that information. Farnbrough and A&AEE was RAE which was MOD at the time, not RAF. Of course if you really look at the list above, the majority of Non Gun armed UK built aircraft in UK service that were brought as such were FAA types (140 Sea Vixens v 70 Lightning F3's). Of course the Navy tried a large warship without a reasonable sized gun (Type 22), that concept was found to have flaws after they bought it. The Russian advances are more to do with an integrated IRST and Laser ranger system (much shorter wavelength than RF, thus much better angle and range information than any medium range radar can give), though modern computers do also help. I do however agree about the guided Hydra rocket being an excellent idea, though that weapon was originally the FFAR!!!
Last edited by MAINJAFAD; 24th Oct 2014 at 06:17.