F-111 Aardvark Bomber

There is one just down the road from were i live.. would be happy to supply cockpit photos to Devs..

Tornado is my number 1 desired plane for DCS.

Sure, but in DCS it happens much more often that you end up fighting enemy aircraft on ground attack missions. The numbers of aircraft that have been shot down by A-10s (another aircraft that was not intended for fighting other aircaft) in DCS are huge. Another reason why this hasn't really happened IRL is the kind of wars that have been fought in the past decades, which were not fought against major powers with capable air forces of their own.

Apples and Oranges. The A-10 fights air to air because it doesn't have a choice in the matter. It's low speed limits it's options for a disengagement to escape. Aircraft like the F-111 and Tornado, with very high top speeds, have the ability to walk away from enemy aircraft without the need to use weapons. Fighting Air to Air is not the job of an aircraft whose mission is to attack targets on the ground so it is not an important capability to have. For those who want to fight Air to Air in either the F-111 or Tornado... well, it's a losing proposition in both cases.

100% would buy in a heart beat. In the surf, as a kid, these things would fly over us, barely above the waves on their way south to the Evans Head air weapons range. What a beast.

As much as I'd prefer the Tornado, I'd still take a good 111F as well.

And for anyone who things the Tornado is slow, please go and take a look at the A-6. That's a slow plane. And it couldn't even try fighting back if engaged.

...

It sounds more and more like a where it was built and who used it argument. Personally, I'd rather have the F-111 because of its capability, my own experiences with the aircraft, It's storied history and because it is the penultimate cold war strike aircraft. I'm sure if I lived in one of the European countries that flew it, I might think the Tornado was the best too and I can't fault you for wanting to fly your own countries aircraft, heck, that would be a better argument.

If it is a choice between the F-111 or the Tornado, I choose F-111 because I have my biases. Now if the choice was F-16 or Tornado, I would choose Tornado... also because of my biases. I know what I like and the Tornado falls short when compared to the F-111. Hopefully we will eventually get both.

Sorry for shortening your post. I completely agree with you, except for the bold parts.

Back then, when Germany was divided and Italy had the RED side just next to Venedig, it would have been mostly Tornados conducting strike in case sh*t would have hit the fan.

And Germany would have easily become the hottest front. Your argument is true though for the US and thus possibly for the Korean border.

Britain had a third or fourth of their birds in Germany, the GAF of course and the Italians had theirs ready as well. Both have a lot of history, but the one cold war blue striker is the Tonka.

The F111 is indeed bad-ass and excels in a bunch of things. Speed, range, loads...

But in DCS I would fear not to get all of the before listed armament.

Is all of that really used on one single variant and sub-variant? Not a rhetoric question.

What I mean is the same as about the Viper now. No TFR, no Harpoon, no Penguin, even though other Block 50 CCIP birds have/use them, just not US ones..

The Tornado in this respect excels. Example: mid 1990's GR.1

ALARM (-> SEAD), unguided bombs, guided bombs, dispensers (JP233), targeting pod and the late ones even got Storm Shadow if I remember correctly. Add one cabel, one panel (as in our Tomcat with LATIRN) and a letter (GR.1B) and you get a Sea Eagle.

So it falls short to the F111 in a bunch of things, but it had a reason. We were just closer to the border.

I also think the Tornado looks better, however this is not a point.

Sorry for shortening your post. I completely agree with you, except for the bold parts.

 

Back then, when Germany was divided and Italy had the RED side just next to Venedig, it would have been mostly Tornados conducting strike in case sh*t would have hit the fan.

And Germany would have easily become the hottest front. Your argument is true though for the US and thus possibly for the Korean border.

Britain had a third or fourth of their birds in Germany, the GAF of course and the Italians had theirs ready as well. Both have a lot of history, but the one cold war blue striker is the Tonka.

 

The F111 is indeed bad-ass and excels in a bunch of things. Speed, range, loads...

But in DCS I would fear not to get all of the before listed armament.

Is all of that really used on one single variant and sub-variant? Not a rhetoric question.

 

What I mean is the same as about the Viper now. No TFR, no Harpoon, no Penguin, even though other Block 50 CCIP birds have/use them, just not US ones..

 

The Tornado in this respect excels. Example: mid 1990's GR.1

 

ALARM (-> SEAD), unguided bombs, guided bombs, dispensers (JP233), targeting pod and the late ones even got Storm Shadow if I remember correctly. Add one cabel, one panel (as in our Tomcat with LATIRN) and a letter (GR.1B) and you get a Sea Eagle.

 

So it falls short to the F111 in a bunch of things, but it had a reason. We were just closer to the border.

I also think the Tornado looks better, however this is not a point.

While we are talking about my opinions and biases I suppose I'll elaborate even more.

The GR1B version of the Tornado was a post Cold War upgrade (1994). Up until about 1991 the Tornado GR1 couldn't even self lase for itself. That was a capability the F-111F had 10 years prior to the Tornado getting its first pre production TIALD pods in Granby. For the Brit Tornado, it was all iron bombs, cluster weapons and nukes during the cold war. Maybe they had the odd buddy lased LGB as well but I suppose they were few and far between with the lack of a self designation capability. Only at the very end of the Cold War were the Brit Tornados starting to pick up more roles. Besides the extra roles they did pick up detracted from the Strike/Interdiction mission. So, yeah, I am still of the opinion that the F-111 is the penultimate Cold War Strike aircraft.

The Marinefliger and Italian IDS did have Kormoran 1 and HARM for anti shipping in the Baltic, Mediterranean and North seas in the 80's. That would have been a better example of their extra cold war roles though I doubt they were able to use the full capabilities of those missiles in the 80's. The Luftwaffe Tornados were doing the same thing the Brit Tornados were doing with iron bombs, cluster weapons and nukes.

In the early 90's the F-111's were getting upgraded with digital avionics with the AUP, AMP and Pacer Strike programs for the F-111C, F-111E and F-111F respectively and the FB-111A's were being optimized for the tactical mission with the F-111G conversion. The upgrades they got were paving the way for the new weapons that would soon be available. The Cold War was over though and the US (as well as the Europeans) had to rationalize their forces. The F-111 represented 3% of the force in the USAF and took 25% of the budget. Had they not been so expensive to operate they might have stuck around a lot longer. When they were retired, most of the F-111's were well under their max flight hours and were on average about 25ish years old. It was cheaper to replace the F-111's capabilities with upgraded versions of the F-15E and B-1B. The European rationalization was to shoehorn more missions into existing platforms and get rid of older planes which is why the Tornado picked up the majority of it's extra capabilities after the Cold War.

As for not having all the weapons in the world on every jet in DCS, I don't care about that. I prefer a reasonably accurate historical modeling of an aircraft's true capabilities over some hodgepodge unrealistic frankenplane any day. An aircrafts deficiencies are part of the challenge of operating it effectively within the game. That is the draw. I'd love to see more planes from the 70's-80's Cold War time period. I view that to be the most interesting time for jet fighter development. For a Cold War Strike/Interdictor, all you need is iron bombs, cluster weapons, GBU's and nukes. We already have plenty of other planes in DCS that can handle the other missions better than a Tornado or F-111 ever could.

Forget the F-111, all I want is the B1B :D

Forget the F-111, all I want is the B1B :D

Would love a full size bomber like the b1. Even a b52 would be pretty cool. Tall about multi crew options :)

Count me in for the F-111. I am driven by sentiment.

My Dad was the project manager for the Australian procurement of the F-111C and one of Australia's best known test pilots (Group Captain Milton Cottee). He often referred to the F-111 as his baby.

I'm looking forward to the F-16 because after the completion of the F-111C project he left the air force to join General Dynamics to represent the F-16 in the battle for Au's new fighter. He lost to the FA-18.

He flew Mustangs in the Korean war so that is covered. He flew over a hundred types over his career so endless work yet for DCS.

I would love the F-111 because it's such a unique aircraft and very capable. If we got a Tornado instead of the F-111, I would still be very happy - both are super cool planes.