U.S. Doubts About F1ll Versatility

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 17

U.S. Doubts About F1ll Versatility

(N.Z.P A Reuter—Copyright I WASHINGTON, April 25. A Congressional sub-committee has found that the swingwing Fill jet plane is not completely acceptable as a replacement for the 852 strategic bomber.

Both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force have ordered Fills. The subcommittee of the armed forces committee of the House of Representatives, which has published its findings, called the Fill “an interim aircraft.” It found that although the

bomber version of the Fill will fly much faster near its target, its capability for conventional warfare “is, at best, marginal.” It said that older models of the 852 were still superior in many ways to the Fill bomber—the FBIII. The committee held extensive hearings last January and February into the Administration's decision to phase out

about two-thirds of the 852 and 858 bombers by 1971 and assign the Fill to the Strategic Air Command. INTERIM AIRCRAFT Summarising its findings, the sub-committee said that “notwithstanding the Secretary of Defence’s opinion to the contrary, the FBlll is an interim aircraft, and not a completely acceptable substitute for the 852 aircraft in the S.A.C. inventories.” The committee repeatedly referred to “the less than desirable capability of the FBlll on a conventional strategic bombing mission.” It agreed that the new plane could be used effectively as a strategic manned bomber on a nuclear mission, but said it could not carry the wide range of nuclear weapons required by S.A.C. “Similarly, because of range limitations it can reach only 70 per cent of the targets assigned to SA.C.”