Delete comment from: Elements Of Power
Your basic point that the F-108 was originally conceived as an interceptor and that it's cancellation as an interceptor was its death knell is clearly correct.
However it's worth looking at what an "escort fighter" had morphed into by the '50s.
SAC operated it's own 'escort' fighter squadrons independently of TAC and ADC until 1957. The 'escort' function morphed through the penetrating fighter idea to the strategic fighter which Air Force Magazine described like this:
"In 1952 it [SAC] directed that in the future the fighters would be equipped to use atomic weapons and employed as part of the strategic striking force. Their new mission included counterair operations against airfields and aircraft, attacks against strategic targets, diversionary strikes, and other operations supplementing the efforts of the big bombers."
This is a role the F-108, with its large weapons bay and characteristics similar to the B-70 would be well suited for. The US Air Force Museum fact sheet on the F-108, in addition to calling it an escort fighter, lists a bomb load of 4,000 pounds in the specifications. This is nonsensical for an interceptor but makes sense for the new 'escort' role.
You will also note that the F-101 was developed completely along these lines as a dual role escort fighter (using the new definition) and interceptor, though it was not procured as such. The classified USAF Standard Aircraft Characteristics sheet for the F-101 in 1955 lists its mission as " . . . the delivery of special stores. Alternate missions include protection of strategic striking force by escort or air superiority."
The admittedly few sites that reference an escort role for the F-108 have it being proposed to fill a similar role (usually by North American) and then dropped as such when SAC dropped the whole escort fighter concept in '57-58.
Apr 24, 2012, 11:21:48 PM
Posted to An Airpower History Lesson in 3 Parts