Israeli S.O. 4050 Vautour upgrades

[yahya]

While the IAF modified their S.O. 4050 Vautours in term of photo recce equipment, I wonder if these airplanes received any better navigation and self-defense systems to include the ECM pods and RWRs (if any) prior to the Six Day War. At least one is known to have been converted to carry the Yabelet underwing ECM pods, however this happened at later times. Were the IAF Vautours used in 1967 in the long-range interdiction missions against the H-3 and remote bases in Egypt with the original French-made avionics without any add-ons?

 

[Archibald]

Were the IAF Vautours used in 1967 in the long-range interdiction missions against the H-3 and remote bases in Egypt with the original French-made avionics without any add-ons?

AFAIK - yes, they were. Le Fana de l'aviation, July 1997 (the first I bought, ever !) had a long and detailed serie about the IDF/AF Vautours. More generally, over the 1990's and 2000's decades Le Fana meticulously explored the story of every single french aircraft in IDF service - including the Fouga Magister and Super Frelon. It makes very good readings: I was completely hooked to that saga (Mirage IIIC 1998-1999)

The Vautour had very primitive avionics like a WWII vintage Norden bombsight. Its chance was, of course, the Middleast clear skies and good weather. Same for the Mirage IIIC, not planned for ground attack (leave that to the IIIE & V ) but clear weather allowed the Israelis to hang iron bombs and drop them efficienctly enough to demolish all those Arab air forces.

One has to realize that, unlike the Buccaneer or A-6 (which are rather close, airframe wise) the Vautour avionic suite was quite poor. It's because the AdA saw it as a jet-powered A-26 Invader - they used many A-26s in Algeria, by the way.

According to Le Fana, when Israeli pilots came to France for training in 1958, they were aghast at the bombing tactics used by the Vautour crews.
They lost no time developing their own.
Also in France the Vautour ended squeezed between the IIIC (all weather interceptor) the IIIE (ground attack) and the Mirage IVA (long range nuclear strike).

 

[yahya]

Thank you very much indeed for the reply. In the mean time, I only managed to find a Vautour N diagram, which suggests that the two-seater was originally equipped with TACAN and ADF plus gyrocompass, and the VHF and UHF radios plus IFF with SIF. I wonder how IAF airmen navigated over to Iraq as getting lost over the desert even in clear weather while flying at low altitude wasn't difficult at all.