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F-4 Phantom vs A-7E Corsair II - Who is a better strike fighter
This is one of the topics that realy raised to often - Is a supersonic fighter have an advantage over a subsonic one in the low level strike mission. The answer is big no !!!
If we check the attrition rate of the Phantom against the Corsair II we will find that the rate last had a lower attrition rate as only 54 were shootdown while 600 Phantoms were shootdown with almost the same number of strike missions.
The reason is simple - The A-7E had a better avionics systems that alowed the A-7E to hit the target in one pass which reduced the chance of hitting from AA fire and this contributed to much lower attrition rate. Also in low level attack the speed of both is around 550 knots against 520 knots
which is almost the same and the A-7 was a smaller target for the NV gunners than the F-4 phantom without the black smoke of the Phantom that eases it's detection - issue that was solved only in 1973 after Vietnam war !!!
Yair
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