The Pentagon Called the F-111 a Failure — It Flew 4,000 Vietnam Missions, Bombed Gaddafi’s Libya, and Outperformed the A-10 in Desert Storm
As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” By the same rationale, one could say that “One military aviation historian’s failure is another military aviation historian’s success.” For example, some pundits consider the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark supersonic fighter-bomber to be a boondoggle and a disaster (for reasons we shall discuss shortly).
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
But if we look honestly and objectively at the real-world combat record of “the Pig” aka “the Vark,” then the worst thing we can say about it is that this warbird was (to use a favorite paradoxical phrase of the late U.S. historian Thomas A. Bailey, a “successful failure.”
Glass Half-Empty Perspective: How and Why the Aardvark Failed
Among the proponents of the “failure” school of thought is former Forbes columnist David Axe, who went so far back in February 2021 as to not only dub the F-111 a “Failure” but also “The F-35 Of Its Day.”
This comparison does a double-disservice, not just to the Aardvark, but also to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, which, in the five years since that piece was published, has had multiple battlefield successes despite the storm of criticism it has weathered.
In fairness, Mr. Axe does also call the F-111’s alleged “failure” a boon to U.S. Air Power.
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
A major reason why some consider the F-111 to be a failure is “guilt by association”; more specifically, association by Robert Strange McNamara (yes, you read his middle name correctly), U.S. Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) under both JFK and LBJ.
A lot of what Mr. McNamara touched in his tenure as SECDEF indeed turned into turds (just ask Vietnam War fighter pilot turned “fighter pilot’s minstrel” Dick Jonas [Lt. Col., USAF, Ret.).
But as another saying goes, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day” (or to quote one of my choirmates at the Tyndall Air Force Base Chapel, “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.”
The Aardvark was born as part of McNamara’s Tactical Fighter Experimental program in 1961, intended to meet the U.S. Air Force’s requirement for a long-range ground-attack and close-air-support (CAS) plane as well as the Navy’s requirement for a loitering interceptor.
The latter service branch rejected it outright, whilst the former accepted it very reluctantly.
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
In other words – and this is where the F-35 parallels do make a little bit of sense – an attempt to please everyone by doing too much too soon ended up pleasing no one.
Glass Half-Full Perspective: How and Why the Aardvark Succeeded
Whatever the degree of reluctance on the “zoomies’” part, they ended up with a variable-sweep winged, supersonic (to the tune of Mach 2.5), medium-range, multirole combat aircraft.
And despite the bumpy bureaucratic beginnings and the Bob McNamara-induced stigma, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) asserts that “Despite the many problems, the F-111 turned out to be one of the most effective all-weather interdiction aircraft in the world … The F-111 series of combat aircraft established the best safety record of any of the aircraft in the Century Series of fighters (F-100 to F-110) — only 77 aircraft being lost in a million flying hours.”
The F-111 was first blooded in combat in that same Vietnam War that McNamara and LBJ buggered up so badly.
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
As noted by former Vark driver Richard Crandall, “The radar was the best in the fighter world at the time.”
As a result of the Aardvark’s successful participation in 1972’s Operation Linebacker and Linebacker II—154 low-level sorties flown during the latter—the North Vietnamese nicknamed the aircraft “Whispering Death,” not to be confused with “Whistling Death,” the nickname conferred upon the prop-driven Vought F4U Corsair fighter by Imperial Japanese pilots during World War II.
All in all, the maligned warbird ended up flying more than 4,000 combat missions in the deadly skies over Vietnam with only six combat losses! (F-4 Phantom II, F-105 Thunderchief, and B-52 Stratofortress crews should’ve been so lucky.)
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
More F-111 Aardvark Combat Success: Post-Vietnam
Fast-forward a full decade past the end of the Vietnam War, and the F-111 had its best-publicized combat achievement: Operation El Dorado Canyon, an airstrike ordered by then-POTUS Ronald Wilson Reagan against maniacal madman Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya on April 15, 1986, in retaliation for a West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier.
18 F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW), along with 25 Navy aircraft, carried out the mission, and the 48 TFW’s contribution, in particular, turned out to be the longest fighter combat mission in history, with a round-trip flight between RAF Lakenheath and Libya, spanning 6,400 miles (10,300 km) and 13 hours.
End result: mission accomplished, 45 of Gaddafi’s soldiers and officials blown away, and 3-5 Ilyushin IL-76 “Candid” transport planes destroyed along with 14 MiG-23 Flogger fighter jets, 2 helicopters, and 5 major ground radars, in exchange for the loss of one F-111, flown by Captains Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and Paul F. Lorence.
Underappreciated—combat record: Operation El Dorado Canyon, an airstrike ordered by then-POTUS Ronald Wilson Reagan against maniacal madman Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya on April 15, 1986, in retaliation for a West Berlin discotheque bombing ten days earlier.
F-111 On Display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Take on July 19, 2025 by Harry J. Kazianis for 19FortyFive.com
Fast-forward another half-decade, this time to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, aka Operation Desert Storm, and “The Pig” turned in an arguably even more impressive—yet way underappreciated—wartime achievement: it outperformed a far more ballyhooed “flying pig” (so to speak), none other than the legendary A-10 Warthog!
Using their PAVE Tack targeting pods combined with laser-guided bombs, the Varks took out over 1,500 Iraqi armored vehicles belonging to then-strongman Saddam Hussein; by contrast, the A-10s killed a comparatively modest 900 enemy armored vehicles.
Give me that record of “failure” any ol’ day of the week and twice on Sundays, baby!
Where Are They Now?
Of the 563 total F-111 airframes built, roughly 43 Pig specimens survive today; among them is a Desert Storm veteran on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio.
In fact, those are the photos, as we visited the warplane there back in July of 2025.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (with a concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” the second edition of which was recently published.
