Israeli Phantoms
“Israeli Phantoms” – the Kurnass in IDF/AF service from 1989 until Today.
(Volume 2 in the Ultimate Phantom II Collection), by Andreas Klein and Shlomo Aloni; published by Double Ugly Books in cooperation with AirDoc, price around $89.00; available from specialist aviation and military book shops in Australia.
Whilst at the Model Expo in Melbourne, I spied a couple of copies of newly released high quality volumes on Israeli Phantoms, though I was only able to buy one of them (Bob Groos bought the others!). My copy is billed as Volume 2 in the Ultimate Phantom II Collection by Double Ugly Books in conjunction with AirDoc; Volume 1 covers the period 1969 to 1989. Bob has both Volumes 1 and 2 and I will be getting Volume 1 as soon as I can to complete this set on the Phantom in Israeli service. They were available from Aeroworks and Hylands at the show.
Many of us will have had our modelling fascinations shaped by the 50+ year long era of the Phabulous McDonnell Phantom II. The type served with over a dozen air forces but has probably seen more active service with the Israeli Air Force than any other. For me the Israeli F-4s had a special charm given their attractive and unique three tone desert camouflage scheme, while the sheer variety of mods and unusual underwing weapons also adds to their appeal as a modelling subject.
Incredibly, Israel received its first F-4E Phantoms back in 1969, and I remember building many of them from the old Airfix 1:72 F-4E kit (probably the most available kit at the time) and trying desperately to find Humbrol equivalents to those unique Israeli colours. Much has changed in terms of the availability of information on Israel’s Phantoms in the intervening years, but this two-part series is far and away the best I have seen on the subject, and provides probably the most comprehensive coverage of any Phantom user. This in itself is extraordinary given the security measures imposed by Israel on its military hardware. My first impression on seeing these 160 pages packed with colour photographs of aircraft, squadrons, badges, underwing weapons, special variants, ECM pods and including complete lists of aircraft serials, serial changes and modifications was that the author must now be residing in jail in Tel Aviv, but extraordinarily the frontispiece notes that the book is approved by the IDAF/AF Censorship Office – remarkable!
This Volume 2 concentrates on the F-4E Kurnass 2000, Israeli parlance for the updated strike version of their F-4E, plus the RF-4E and the amazing F-4E(S) with its huge HIAC-1 long range recce camera. Dave White would love this beast! There are chapters on each of the five main operational squadrons and on the test and evaluation squadron, each chapter being profusely illustrated with colour photos and colour side views. It seems extraordinary to have such detailed captions to the photographs which, in some cases, identify the base, squadron, date and armament fitted plus the intended target! There are chapters with walk-around photos of the two recce variants, while seven Appendices provide scale drawings of side, top and bottom views for each variant plus weapons, ECM pods and so on, plus never before released information in the serial listing.
The product of remarkable research and beautifully produced in high quality glossy paper, this is indeed a phabulous book and worth every dollar for the Phantom phan.
Dave Richardson