...the Phantom was still a handy strike/CAS aircraft...
It certainly wouldn't have been used for strike missions! After the war we did a bit of strafe, but that was about it. Apart from the centre station selector for the gun, no-one with any sense ever touched the rusty old mud-moving crap in the centre pedestal. The wiring hadn't been checked for years and legend has it that when someone did move one of the switches, the tanks fell off...
It would have been one heck of a challenge, both in engineering and training terms, to have resurrected any A/G capability of the F-4 in 1982. Had there been a serious A/G requirement beyond the ability of the SHAR, the Buccaneer was the obvious choice.
But if we'd had CVA-01, perhaps even with P.1154...ah well
