the Phantom was still a handy strike/CAS aircraft
What Beagle said..
By early 83 It has been a while since the UK's F4s had been used in any strike/CAS/mud moving role so heaven knows what state the wiring was in for any of the air to ground functions (though as Beags said the cockpit switches were still in situ, gathering dust..).
Obviously the centreline SU-23 hardware had been maintained for air to air purposes and before deploying south we did a limited strafe work up. I was down south for the first time late 82 - March 83 and some of us did the odd strafe "currency"" session against some surplus to requirement Pucaras but I'm not sure how well the profile we flew would have worked in anger against a grunt armed with a SAM 7 or Blowpipe....
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
I heard that one...someone supposedly couldn't resist playing with a certain selection
and lost the centerline tank...not sure if it's really true but it's a good story.....