Well it didn't until the
F-4E came along in the fall of 1967. It carried a
M61A1 VULCAN six barreled 20mm internal nose mounted cannon. Due to it's initial design mission as a long range radar interceptor it was felt the plane didn't need it. That would change with the lessons learned from the Vietnam War.
To be fair actually the
F-4C did eventually carry either the
SUU-16/A or SUU-23/A gun pods however they caused drag issues compared to just carrying extra fuel tanks or ordnance. These issues would part of the reason as stated above, for an internal mounted weapons system.
Seems like we just had this discussion within the last couple of years!?!
Anyway...
http://www.aviation-history.com/mcdonnell/f4.html
http://www.airforce-technology.com/p...ighter-bomber/
https://www.globalaircraft.org/planes/f-4_phantom_ii.pl
I saw some discussion on the next so here's a "
where are they now" update.
https://theaviationist.com/2016/08/3...aesh-in-libya/
Regards,
Pat
