IAI F-4 upgrading proposals also include the introduction of canard surfaces such as were first applied more than a decade since to this F-4 (62-12200), originally the YRF-4C, which served as a test-bed for at least a half-dozen major flight programmes before "canarding".

It is predicted that as many as 2,000 F-4 Phantoms will still he around at the turn of the century and among veteran operators of this (by then) 40-plus year old warplane will assuredly be the Israeli air arm, one of the F-4Es of which is seen here with IAI Gabriel III all-weather stand-off missile test rounds.

The Pratt & Whitney PW1120 being inserted in the starboard engine bay of the Israeli test F-4 Phantom at IAI's Bedek Aviation Division. For the initial flight test phase, which was scheduled to commence at around the time this issue of AIR International was passed for press, the J79 is retained in the port engine bay, but, during the course of 1986, this, too, will be replaced by a PW1120 turbofan.

F-4 Phantom II modernisation proposals