Get the F-4 Phantom II in service with Belgium, Italy & the Netherlands post 1969

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
As it says, with a post 1969 pod ( I chose 1969 as it matches the German & UK introduction of service) get the Air Forces of Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands to purchase the F-4 Phantom.

Bonus points if you can get the countries involved to build their aircraft under licence

More bonus if the F-4 enters service instead of the F-104 Starfighter

Regards filers
 
I don't think McD-D, who could rely on the actual ruggedness and capability of their aircraft (one of maybe three or so Western "multi-role" aircraft that truly were without significant modification) would have greased as many of the right palms as Lockheed did, and F-104 had a slight but significant temporal edge on the Phantom. Also, right at that point is precisely when those nations (minus Belgium who opted for the Mirage 5 but plus Canada) all chimed in on the MRCA in order to build a NATO-standard, license built in each nation, multi-role aircraft (though chiefly attack and reconnaissance with a soupçon of SEAD) precisely *to* replace the F-104. A better chance really I think is not just to have the Netherlands drop out (as they did citing the MRCA's development into something bigger and more complex than they wanted) but others as well and thence have even more nations buy in to license-build of the F-16 as a direct F-104/CF-5 (NF-5 for the Dutch and Norse) replacement. Really the goal then can become, scotch the whole MRCA project, make the Brits either cycle back around to building more Jags and revisiting F-111K (as the Australians ultimately stuck with it despite costs, delays, and the alternative of keeping the F-4s that they leased and pilots loved but didn't match the total package of capability in the F-111C) or build what we know as the Tornado as a bigger, more capable British-only airframe while the rest do something else (most likely F-16.) The Phantom's timing was off for the NATO states that didn't buy in early like the U.K. and FRG: it was really coming into its own just after tons of money had been spent on the "Widowmaker" from Lockheed, the Europeans were converging on MRCA, and then Nixon/oil shock stagflation hit defense budgets. The best POD is kill the MRCA but there was powerful industrial and bureaucratic impetus for *something* like it. It's a tough sell to make Phantom fit the bill, she was a big beast and that may constrain budgets: part of the promise of MRCA, as with the Joint Strike Fighter, was the mirage that "standardized" would equate to "cheap." Canada had already passed on Phantom based on cost ( and because #fuckPaulHellyerintheeye had just plumped down for the CF-5 because it would be a license build for Canadair and keep Canada deliberately *out* of the Nuclear Sharing business.) And Foreign Military Sales credits drove purchases by Israel and South Korea much as inflation-driven oil billions drove Iran's big Phantom buy. All those elements made Phantom the right aircraft at the wrong time (indeed Britain might have passed too if the incoming Labour government had not killed he P.1154 before it could transition from a nice V/STOL goal with hot-gas ingestion problems to an eminently workable CTOL workhorse.) But the genius of AH is figuring out how to make the times different: something needs to either expose Lockheed's biblical levels of bribery faster or kill the MRCA sooner. What that would be is up to the individual players :)
 
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The Problem with this scenario is the F-4 Phantom II, what is a two-seat, heavy twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber.
While the F-104 is a is a light single-engine, supersonic interceptor aircraft

Belgium Air-force is small and inside NATO had only support role
Were the F-104 fit perfect until 1983 as it was replaced by F-16 a light single-engine, supersonic multirole aircraft.
yes Belgium military try to buy reconnaissance aircraft in 1968, but the F-4 Phantom II was not what they wanted
Also not Mirage IV the Belgium politician purchase

And Here lies the another Problem: Corruption and Package-deals
it open secret that allot of Military contracts in Belgium were made by large contribution to Belgium Political Parties and politician.
in case of F-104 Lockheed and also in case of Mirage IV payment were made to ruling parties
Another issue is Belgium Package-deals demands on contract that the Aircraft are build in Belgium !
so were the F-104, Mirage IV and F-16 for Belgium Airforce were build in Belgium by SABCA

that two issue McDonnell/Douglas would not do, bribery or license production in oversea.
 
I think it comes down to strategy: The F4 Phantom as used by the Germans was a heavy strike fighter/fighter-bomber. The F104 was a fast interceptor. Offensive fighter-bombers make sense when like (West) Germany you share a border with the adversary. For countries like Belgium the Netherlands or Italy not so.

The obvious answer to get this countries to need something like the Phantom is to have a Nato policy that has them share in 'tours of duty' along the Inner-German border and regularly rotate their squadrons with the Americans and Canadians. For Italy on its own, may be a more mainline Marxist Yugoslavia that is part of the Warsaw Pact on the other side of the Adria might do the trick.
 
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