Taken in a West Germany air base in the 1970s the gorgeous video in this post shows a typical Cold War Era scramble performed by a couple of U.S. Air Force (USAF) F-4E Phantoms on “Zulu Alert.”
Noteworthy Zulu Alert is the air-sovereignty mission where fighters scramble to intercept unknown ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone which actually is airspace over land or water in which the identification, location, and control of unidentified aircraft is performed in the interest of national security) intruders or anyone else who shouldn’t be where they are.
As explained in the video the interceptors had to be airborne within 5 minutes of horn going off, while the usual loadout of the Phantoms for this type of mission consisted of 20 mike mike M61 Vulcan cannon, AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missiles and AIM-7 Sparrow semi-active radar homing (SARH) missiles.
According to the clip description, moments during Zulu Alert scrambles were so tense that “sometimes during taxi and takeoff you were still trying to finish strapping in.”
So sit down, enjoy the video and feel the adrenaline of a Cold War Era Zulu Alert Scramble.
The F-4E is essentially an F-4D with improved J79-GE-17 engines (900 pounds more static sea level thrust each) and an M61A1 “Vulcan” 20mm cannon. Operational experience gained in Vietnam had a direct influence on the addition of the cannon. The air-to-air missile fire-to-hit ratios were low and air combat usually degenerated to subsonic “dogfighting” where the F-4 was at a decided disadvantage when flying against more maneuverable enemy aircraft (MiG-17 and MiG-21). The hydraulically powered wing-folding mechanism and the emergency ram-air turbine were removed to save weight and a seventh fuel cell was added. The addition of self-sealing fuel tanks starting with block 41 aircraft lowered the fuel capacity by 139 gallons but provided much better combat survivability.
Artwork courtesy of AircraftProfilePrints.com
Cold War Era