Faster and more agile, swept wings instead of straight. Antiquated avionics, comparable bomb load and range.
Maybe the Vautours were used as trainers but officially the force de frappe was activated on October 1, 1964 at Mont de Marsan air base with Mirage IVA.
NB. I started writing this before
@Archibald added the information to Post 264.
I thought EB92 operated Vatour IIBs from 1958 to 1964 when they were replaced by Mirage IVs
However, when I checked my source (
http://www.traditions-air.fr/index.htm) I discovered that the Vatours remained in service with EB92 until 1974 and the Mirage IV was operated by EB91, EB93 and EB94 that were formed 1964-67.
So it looks like no Vatour IIB bombers were for sale in 1970. Therefore, it's stick to the Canberra or buy the Buccaneer as suggested by
@alejandrogrossi.
Yes I checked and now I have a clearer vision of the Vautours (Vulturs) in French service.
There were three variants: the A (for attack) the B (bomber) and the N (night fighter) .
Main difference:
- the A had plenty of guns in a solid nose to demolish ground targets by straffing - IDF/AF excelled at this.
- the B had a bomb bay to do the same except with gravity bombs, with a glazed nose and a navigator and a NORDEN.
- the N was an all weather / night fighter and a two man crew in a tandem canopy - so solid nose with guns like the A.
What exactly happened is the following.
The Vautour A, the Armée de l'Air did not gave a rat about it - straffing with guns was not their thing. So they were dumped to the Israelis, who did wonders against the Arabs this way.
The Vautour N ended screwed by the Mirage IIIC, IIIE, F1 Mach 2 all weather (or partially) interceptors. And so the N were also dumped to Israel, who used them to chase Il-28s and Tu-16s at night - before 1962 when they received 60 Mirage III-C. After what the Vautours were recycled into a mixed A&B role: gravity bombs into the runways first, then straffing of arab aircraft. And they were damn efficient in that role, flying as far as Luxor on one engine to save fuel (!) before taking the poor egyptians there with their pants down.
This left only the Vautour B with the glazed Tu-16 like nose, navigator and NORDEN in French service, this for a pretty stupid reason. The Armée de l'Air saw it as a jet powered A-26 Invader or B-26 Marauder - they had used both aircraft from 1943 (free french) to 1963 (Algeria brush war). So they put a NORDEN bombsight into the Vautour B and a navigator in the nose and also gravity bombs, and used a near supersonic jet that way. From medium altitudes, like a WWII light bomber.
When the Israelis first batch of pilots came to France for initial Vautour training in spring 1958 and saw that, they were pretty baffled and aghast. As soon as the Vautours were ferried across the Mediterranean sea via Corsica, the Israeli developed their own tactics I mentionned above.
If you want to use gravity bombs on a Vautour, use them to thunder at low level, take the target with its pants down and to crater the runway first - large and impossible to miss target. Then turn back and use the four 30 mm guns to straffe the shit out of any parked aircraft.
But go tell that to the Armée de l'Air. Even more in the age of supersonic and pointy and nuclear Mirage IV. Sounds familiar ? TSR-2 versus Buccaneer, and the RAF miseries 1958-1968 (they staunchly refused the Buccaneer fifth times in a row, yet they got it in the end - muhahahahaha !!!)
So the few remaining Vautours, all of them B- models of the dumb gravity bombs and NORDEN kind, ended at BA-106 Bordeaux Merignac, in two squadrons: 1/92 and 2/92. By 1974 the two squadrons merged into just one 92 squadron, which was disbanded late 1978 putting an end to 20 years of obscure Vautour service in France.
That 92 squadron(s) did all kind of obscure but useful missions in support of the Mirage IVA, because the Vautour was the one and only with enough range to follow them... or go further. It trained pilots to aerial refueling, as a tanker with a Mirage IV trailing it or in reverse - trailing a C-135FR.
It also trained pilots to two seat fast bombers flying long range and low level because, once again, only the Vautour could do that.
But the Bordeaux Merignac 92 squadron also had a peculiar mission: electronic warfare. Jamming of Soviet radars to create a breach and allow the Mirage IV to cross into the Eastern block and then proceed to Moscow and nuke the place. They were not wild weasel, just jammers. Wild weasel came to France with the AS-37 Martel, but Vautours were too old and slow: Mirage IIIE and Jaguars got the big missiles instead (and they were damn heavy, particularly for the Adour 102 Jaguars).
That mission was called CHIPIRON, because of the cuttlefish Basque seafood dish (don't ask me why)
2 août 2020 - Basque grilled squids recipe is a common meal in the Basque Country because of our Atlantic Coast. Learn how to cook chipirons à la Luzienne
www.pinterest.fr
The Vautour electronic warfare missions was not different from similar Canberra, Skywarrior or Il-28 variants. All four aircraft were rather similar overall. Also the Yak-25s and Yak-28s, which truly looked like Vautourskis or Vautourov.
For the IDF/AF it took Phantoms after 1969 to replace the Vautours as their long range strike arm - nowadays assumed by the F-15I. Before the Phantoms escort to the Entebbe C-130s in 1976 and the F-15 over Osirak in 1981, the Vautours truly pioneered those kind of long range strikes.
During the 6-days war they completed the destruction of the Egyptian air force by going where no Mirage or Mystere could go: Luxor.
The baffled Egyptians had moved their surviving Migs and Il-28 to the south, hopefully out of reach of IDF/AF supersonic jet fleet.
With no aerial refueling, and with just one engine to save fuel. On the return trip one damaged Vautour liped back to Eilat backward airstrip at the southern tip of Israel. Just when it touched down, the engine stopped, dry of fuel. The pilot could just wheel down and stop.
