The First Phantom AIM-7F Launched in PACAF
During an my assignment to the 36 TFS Fantastic Flying Fiends at Oasan AB, ROK, we deployed to Clark AB in the Philippines for a WSEP (Weapons System Evaluation Program) live weapons fire exercise. The majority of our shots would be with the AIM-9P infrared missile. As luck would have it, our squadron was there at the right time to do the first live fire evaluation of the AIM-7F radar guided missile before it was deployed to PACAF F-4 units. My trusty backseater “Hooter” and I were on the schedule of the day for the first AIM-7F. The boss said it would be a short straw draw to see who got to take the first one out. When my turn came, I pulled the short straw out of the boss’s hand.
Then it started. Way more than enough “adult guidance” on all the normal preflight, inflight, and post flight procedures with firing a live missile. Since we practiced this stuff every single day we flew at home base, it was a tad bit of overkill. But, WSEP guys were going to make sure we didn’t screw this up. So, we had multiple guys monitoring and watching over us during the briefings and preflight. We were even going to have a WSEP crew flying one of our squadron jets to chase and observe our intercept and shot.
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Hooter and suited up in life support and stepped to the jet for preflight. We split up to do our normal assigned preflight checks. One of mine was the walk around, including weapons inspection. When I came to the shiny new AIM-7F mounted in our left rear missile position, I paused for a “this is going to be so cool” moment. So, I checked that it was secure in its partially submerged position in the mount, checked the electrical umbilical was secure, and that the four steering fins were securely engaged. All this required was to grasp the fin and wiggle it, making sure it didn’t free swivel. I checked the vertical fin. It was normal to have some small movement as long as it didn’t swing from side to side. This one was good. Next, I checked the horizontal fins. Because they were nearly flush with the belly of the jet, my paw couldn’t get quite the same grip on them. But, they had the “normal” wiggle as far as I could check.
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Moving on with the rest of the preflight of the jet, we climbed in and got ready bring the J-79s to life. Of course we had an entire tree full of owls watching us up to this point. So, we were relieved to get started up and taxi out to the active runway with our WSEP chase crew close behind. We taxied into EOR (end of runway) for final checks before takeoff. Of course, there were more owls there, in addition to our normal crew chief compliment to check us over.
Cleared for takeoff, we line up our two ship, stroke the burners, perform a two ship formation takeoff, and head out to the live fire area over the ocean. We checked into the are with GCI and setup for the intercept against a Firebee drone. We were at 2,000’ above the ocean and the Firbee would be at 1,000’.
Since the “F” was brand new, the WSEP guys wanted to explore the outside edges of its advertised performance envelope. The Phantom had a set of red “SHOOT” lights on the front cockpit canopy bow to give the pilot additional visual clues when the WSO (backseater) had a radar lock on the target and its was within effective firing range of the AIM-7 Sparrow. In daily ops we would sweeten the shot based on historical AIM-7 performance to enhance the PK (percentage kill) of the missile. The WSEP guys instructed us to launch the “F” as soon as the SHOOT lights flashed so the extreme edges of the envelope could be explored.
GCI set us up about 60 miles out for our planned look down face shot against the drone. We received clearance to live fire. So, I selected “MISSLES” on my armament panel and armed it. We were aimed straight at it for a nice shot in the snot locker. As we got closer, our radar started “picketing”, basically a stuttering vertical line display that was absolutely useless. Hooter was working furiously to get it resolved, to include tuning the bottom of the radar console with his boot, as we rapidly got closer. Our combined closure rate with the drone was nearly a 1,000 knots. Hooter is now cursing profusely at the radar because it’s about to screw up our shot. The last thing we wanted to do was haul the shiny new AIM-7F back to Clark.
While this was going on, I was searching intently for this little international orange bastage.
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Ah ha! There it is coming down the right side about 10 degrees off the nose. I called a tally ho and started a hard, high G right turn to chase it down. As we rolled out, Hooter announced that the radar was back in the game and he was locking on. He called “LOCKED”, the “SHOOT” lights flashed immediately, and I squeezed the trigger. We felt it release, and heard the freight train like SWOOSH but, it was no where to be seen. It should be out in front of us with a contrail chasing down the Firebee. We are looking all over for it and neither of use could get a visual. Our chase Phantom was on the right side about 45 degrees back. Finally, there it is on our left side in a big, lazy barrel roll, gradually working its way to the drone. As the barrel roll degrades the misssle’s energy state it’s flight path transitions into an every decreasingly small corkscrew, and then the missile motor expends it’s fuel. Out in front of us is a small line of cumulo nimbus clouds that the missile is descending toward and behind. I stroke the burners to the front stop and start chasing it down. As we crossed the line of clouds, the missile, now completely out of energy, is going straight down, and impacts the water on a direct line about a hundred yards short of two Philippinos in a bonka boat.
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On the way back to Clark, Hooter and I go over everything in detail to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. We’d done it all correctly. Of course when we got back, it would be guilty until proven innocent. The post flight debrief was very extensive. The chase guys had nothing because we had verbalized all the relaunch checklist over the radio (way out of normal ops). As luck would have it, the missile had a telemetry package mounted on it. It took a couple of hours for the WSEP guys to analyze the data. When they did, it was determined the the missile’s horizontal fins when not correctly attached to the missile, causing them to fully swivel with the airflow. There was no way to determine that because of the physical lack of space to wiggle the horizontal fin enough. Strike one for the missile load crew.
The debrief with our chase crew was revealing. When I launched the “F”, it dropped and ignited normally but, started a hard fight turn in their direction. They almost broke hard right to avoid it except, it started the barrel roll over the top and to the rear of us. As it rolled down and back up, that was where we picked up the visual for the rest of the adventure.