The F-4C Phantom II is a supersonic twin engine jet fighter located in the American tech tree. It features a wide variety of not only air-to-air but also air-to-ground armament options, being the ultimate mid to high-tier multirole aircraft for the American tree.
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Supersonic | Poor maneuverability |
| Powerful radar with IFF | Lack of Look-Down modes |
| SARH missiles | SARH missiles ineffective at short range |
| Guided air-to-ground missiles | No countermeasures |
Air-to-Air Capabilities
The F-4C is one of the first aircraft in the US tech tree that has dedicated SARH missile pylons, a feature that many will find really useful as there is no need to sacrifice any other armaments for some of your missiles. One thing to note however is the aircraft has no internal cannons and while you are able to equip 20mm Vulcan gun pods, they significantly affect the aircraft’s flight performance due to their high weight and drag so it is ultimately up to the pilot to decide what suits them best.
- The main IR missile available is the AIM-9E, a 10G missile featuring an uncaged seeker with a rather small gimbal limit. This missile plays in a similar way to the AIM-9B, offering only minimal overload capability but with less drag (thus more range) and the ability to slightly lead the missile that very slightly helps the missile hit maneuvering targets.
- In addition to the AIM-9E, you also get access to the AIM-7D. This missile features a 15G overload and excels at hitting targets at higher altitude. The main limitation of this missile is its guidance computer, not allowing it to maneuver until a few seconds after launch, making it almost impossible to use it in close range head-ons.
Air-to-Ground Capabilities
CAS is where the F-4C excels. Having access to CCIP for not only your cannons but bombs and rockets, combined with the absolutely massive payloads this aircraft can carry make it a very powerful CAS aircraft. From being able to take out multiple bases in Air Battles to being able to carpet bomb the entire map in Ground Battles, this aircraft is a very solid choice CAS at its BR.
However in addition to bombs and rockets, the F-4C gets access to the AGM-12 Bullpup. The AGM-12B has a smaller warhead however it is still significantly large, having almost as much TNT as 250lb bombs, often turning a near miss into a kill. In addition, you get access to the AGM-12C which have more than double the amount of explosives, being more powerful even than 500lb bombs that has no trouble knocking out groups of enemies if they decide to stand too close to each other.
Flight Performance
While this aircraft has two very powerful afterburning jet engines, it will often struggle in a dogfight against most other aircraft at its BR. The heavy weight of the aircraft combined with the lack of leading edge slats significantly hamper the amount of AOA this aircraft can achieve, resulting in a lower instantaneous turnrate but improving energy retention. Where the Phantom excels is at high altitude, staying fast and simply outrunning every enemy you encounter.
Survivability
Despite the lack of any form of countermeasures, due to the high speed of this aircraft you can simply outrun any missiles fired at you. The aircraft is also equipped with the AN/APR-25 digital RWR. A very useful tool, especially at high altitude that lets you identify enemy radars and can even warn of an enemy radar lock. The RWR can only detect E, G, and I bands which may be the most common radar bands in the game however there is one exception, that being Soviet radars which operate on the J band that your RWR cannot detect (MiG-21, MiG-23).
While it is possible to use rockets to distract enemy missiles, it is usually not worth the extra weight of the rocket pods so a more viable strategy is to shoot down these missiles using one of your AIM-9E missiles. It is, however, advised that you do not get within range of any aircraft with all-aspect missiles since it is often a gamble whether or not you will survive.
Conclusion
This aircraft is best played as a high altitude interceptor, utilizing its AIM-7Ds to destroy enemies that are not paying attention while making sure to keep your airspeed high. Carrying a gun is optional and depends on your playstyle but it is advised to be brought into battle by newer players. The AIM-9E will often stay unused since it is hard to get a proper firing solution for it and it is even harder to get it to hit an enemy aircraft.
It is also possible to bring bombs but it is not recommended as this aircraft is not only flareless but it has to trade its gun for bombs on the centerline pylon which turns you into an easy target for essentially any aircraft you will encounter.
In ground battles, the most optimal loadout consists of AGM-12 Bullpups, air-to-air missiles and Zuni rockets, bombs, or a gunpod. This loadout allows for longer range engagements which will make taking out enemy SPAA significantly easier than using unguided ordnance. Due to the large amount of ordnance this aircraft can carry, it is not hard to end up with a relatively large amount of kills before needing to rearm.
