In the early 1960s, the United States Department of Defense launched an ambitious project: an advanced multi-role aircraft satisfying the whole spectrum of all U.S. military service needs with one airframe. This country walked the farther path, as it led to the birth of the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, a true pathfinder that would see service as a platform for ground attack, strategic bombing, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare.
Conceived as a fighter bomber for the U.S. Air Force and an air-superiority fighter for the U.S. Navy, the F-111 program would become one of the most controversial to hit both services. The aircraft itself had numerous groundbreaking technologies, such as a variable-geometry wing, the first in a production aircraft, and terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight. It was also the first production aircraft to use after-burning turbofan engines, allowing supersonic speed without the use of mid-air refueling.
The F-111 entered service in 1967 as a US Air Force bomber. Its advanced avionics allowed for night and all-weather flight, mere hundreds of feet above the ground, evading detection until after delivery of its payload. So, it could fly with straight wings for takeoff and landing configurations, to a swept configuration past Mach 2 at altitude.
The long legs and large weapons load of the Aardvark paid great dividends in Vietnam, where the aircraft dramatically outdistanced and outlasted the storied F-4 Phantom. Improved models of the F-111F, with its native AN/AVQ-26 Pave Tack targeting system, further increased the precision strike envelope of this aircraft.
Perhaps the most remarkable use of the F-111 came in 1986 during Operation El Dorado Canyon, the longest fighter combat mission ever flown. Eighteen F-111Fs, along with four EF-111A electronic warfare models, pull off a very audacious 6,400-mile round-trip strike deep into Libya, harrowing the long-range capabilities of the aircraft, suspecting, of course, the loss of one plane.
Five years later, the F-111F proved itself to be a lethal strike platform at the beginning of Operation Desert Storm in 1991, launching over 2,400 sorties against strategic Iraqi targets, vehicle formations, and hardened bunkers. A total of 566 F-111s were produced throughout the whole series, with the final F-111F being retired in 1996, its role going to the F-15E Strike Eagle and B-1B Lancer.
The F-111 Aardvark has gone down in history, among other things, as a multifunctional ultra-modern aircraft with high combat capability that could satisfy a wide range of roles and ambitious ideas of the U.S. Department of Defense in shaping the future of war in the air.