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The F-111 featured a variable swept-wing design that allowed pilots to reduce takeoff and landing distance by extending the aircraft’s wings and sweeping them to reach supersonic speeds at high and low altitudes. The aircraft combined a terrain-following navigation system with the Pave Tack target designating system to attack ground targets with laser guided bombs. The F-111 served in the United States Air Force from 1967 through 1996.
As the final ‘Aardvark’ production variant, the F-111F featured improved avionics, including navigational and digital computer systems, improved wing structure and landing gear, and more powerful Pratt & Whitney TF30-P-100 engines; 106 were built.
On Aug. 25, 1990 the then 48th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) began to deploy many of its 72 F-111Fs to the Royal Saudi Air Force Base at Taif, near Mecca in western Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Shield; in the ensuing Gulf War 67 F-111Fs and 100 crews were in theatre, making some 2,500 sorties specialising in laser guided bomb attacks from the first night of the war – Jan. 17, 1991 through to the end of the conflict on Feb. 28, 1991, flying 4,000 sorties and accounting for the greatest proportion of targets destroyed in Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.
As told by Bob Archer in his book F-111: Fort Worth Swinger, of importance was a task which is believed to have been partially responsible for the Gulf War ending. Located to the north of Baghdad was the large underground bunker at Al Taji Air Base. It was known to be a command centre, housing many senior military personnel who were controlling the war from within the complex. The bunker was deep underground (possibly 50 feet) and was almost impregnable to conventional munitions. The USAF needed a special weapon capable of deep penetration, with just such a munition being hastily developed by the US Army’s Watervliet Arsenal, New York. Using the barrel from an eight-inch Howitzer, and weighing some 4,700lbs, a single bomb was produced.
Test F-111F 74-0186 of the 431st Test and Evaluation Squadron, 57th FWW, from McClellan AFB, delivered the inert device on the Tonopah Test Range on Feb. 24, 1991 which penetrated the ground. Technicians initially gave up searching for the weapon at 100 feet (it was eventually discovered a further 50 feet down in the desert). Interestingly, Eglin AFB, Florida, engineers suggested that even if the weapon failed to explode, the kinetic energy of the 4,700lb bomb travelling at 1,400 feet per second would still have a serious impact upon any structure hit!
Designated as the GBU-28/B, the military was sufficiently impressed that two further weapons were produced. Such was the urgency, that as soon as the two bombs were complete, they were flown by Lockheed C-141 Starlifter from Eglin AFB, to Taif AB.
Personnel report that the two munitions were ‘still warm’ when loaded onto the airlifter. The two weapons were quickly unloaded and attached to the port underwing hard points of a pair of F-111Fs.
With laser guidance fitted, the two F-111s departed Taif, and flew north on Feb. 27, 1991. The large underground target had air vents protruding to the surface. Therefore, the weapons systems officer (WSO) had to acquire an air vent with great accuracy. Due to incorrect co-ordinates, the first bomb released from 70-2391 missed the target. With only one weapon remaining, there was huge pressure on the WSO of the second aircraft, serial 70-2387. Checking and double checking, the young captain confirmed to the pilot that he had the target. He then pressed the weapons release, and after what appeared to be an interminable delay, smoke was seen coming out of first one, and then other vents.
Although no further details have been revealed, the Gulf War ended the next day, so it is highly likely that Saddam’s capitulation was assisted by the loss of senior personnel at Al Taji. The GBU-28/B was developed and fielded in just three weeks and proved such a success that further models were constructed, but with purpose-built casings rather than surplus artillery barrels.
F-111: Fort Worth Swinger is published by Key Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
Dario Leone: All articles
