Happy 50th anniversary, Turkish Phantoms!
Report and photos by Gabriele Rivera
February 17, 2025
Spoiler alert: this report focus exclusively on the Phantom. If this aircraft is not of your interest, better skip to another feature of APD’s website! Turkey is one of the last three countries still operating this flying monument (the others being Greece and Iran). To celebrate the historic milestone of 50 years of active service the Turkish Air Force (THK – Türk Hava Kuvvetleri) has organized an event that will be remembered for the years to come!
But first a few pills of history: Turkey’s decision to equip its air force with the F-4E Phantom II dates back to 1972 with an initial purchase of 40 units, acquired in response to regional tensions with Greece (which few months before had already bought the same model) and the need for modern fighter capabilities. The first two aircraft landed at Eskişehir on August 30, 1974, ferried by American pilots. Since previous October two groups of pilots, officers and NCOs were sent to the USA to be trained; once returned to their home bases they started to pass the acquired knowledge on their colleagues. Out of the 40 planes purchase, only 8 entered service before an embargo on weapons supply was enforced due to the situation arose in Cyprus; at the end of 1975 a partial lift of the embargo allowed the delivery of the remaining batch of aircraft.
In 1976 Turkey decided to buy an additional batch of 40 aircraft, reinforcing its role as a cornerstone of Turkey’s air power. Over subsequent years (1981-1982, 1984-1985 and in 1987), more F4-E Phantom II aircraft were purchased from the USA, while 1994 twenty RF-4E were transferred from the German air force.
During these 50 years the Phantoms have served in nine squadrons, based in Eskişehir (1st Main Jet Base), Konya (3rd MJB) and Erhaç-Malatya (7th MJB). Nowadays only the 111st Squadron operates the F-4E in the interceptor/bombardment role (the active fleet should consist of about 20 aircraft), while the 401st Test Squadron continues to execute the testing activities of new payloads and other systems added to the TurAF’s inventory. Both squadrons are based in Eskişehir.
In 1997 54 Phantoms have been subject to a modernization program, bringing those airframes to be renamed F-4E-2020 Terminator. The program was based on the updates that the Israelis had introduced in their Kurnass; aside some minor structural improvements, substantial changes have involved new HUD and HOTAS, an ELTA EL/M-2032 radar, improved navigational systems, active and passive ECM and integration with more effective guided weapons and targeting pods. 28 aircraft were sent in Israel to be updated by IAI, while the other 26 were updated directly in Turkey. Terminator program dramatically increased the capabilities in the air to ground missions; as the full name suggests the modified planes were thought to stay in service until 2020, but rumours tend to push this time limit up to 2030.
Operationally, the Phantom has been integral to Turkish defense strategy, participating in numerous cross-border missions in Iraq and Syria against terrorist threats. It has also been involved in large-scale exercises such as Anatolian Eagle and NATO’s Tiger Meet, bolstering both national and international interoperability.
The Turkish Air Force has gone to great lengths to celebrate this anniversary; a month before hundreds of enthusiasts, spotters and media have received an email inviting them to a two-day event. After a while word spread that a low-level photo opportunity was going to be in the schedule; important clue that this one would have been an anniversary like no other! Fast forward to Friday 15th November; weather forecast are not good, but in the Whatsapp community set up from the Turkish Air Force (probably another first in this kind of events) the PAO announces that a 12-16 window has been decided.
Saturday morning dozens of rented cars leave Eskişehir, bound to the countryside bordering Ankara province; after a two hours and half drive, we get past the village of Süleler and park the car along the road, following the instructions of the local police. A half-mile walk later we reach a sort of hillock overlooking the Sakarya river. Hopes to see Phantoms fly in the valley start to increase after a couple of hours, because the clouds are slowly leaving space to sunlight; should this become true, we know that two airplanes, one of them a special color, should perform three passes each in both directions.
Around 15.30 one of the soldiers shouts “Planes are coming!”; everybody points the camera towards west, from where a black Phantom with a painted Turkish red flag covering almost the entire airframe flies along a good part of the gorge at low level. The plane is followed by another one, operationally painted; one after the other they bank to the left and climb following the slopes in order to enter the valley from east, repeating the pass in front of the crowd, already in the throes of exaltation.
This first round of flyovers is just to take measurements. The trend for the following ones is to reduce level and increase speed; in a couple of passes the Phantoms have flown really low on the river, producing the classic ripples on the water. Luckily the rumours about the number of passes turned out to be wrong; the total closes to 20, more or less. In particular the westward passes tend to be really spectacular; skimming the slopes to reverse directions or flying towards the sun have given away great satisfaction to the spotters, but those which will become the trademark of the anniversary are those ones where the pilots have rotated buzzing the rocky outcrop hosting all of us (and those on the frontline have surely felt the heat of the jet wash)! To recap this unforgettable day I’ll cite a guy’s comment in the community chat: “I never thought I’d need hearing protection in a valley for low flying”.
The second day of the anniversary has been entirely spent inside Eskişehir Main Jet Base; this time the weather decide not to contribute to the success of the day, covering the airfield with a blanket of clouds. The base personnel let us take position really close to the runway, so we have had the opportunity to shoot good pictures nonetheless the absence of a decent light. The morning wave is composed by five Phantoms, obviuosly fronted by the black special colour. After several passes over the base, they landed, all of them releasing the drag chute. Those who wanted could cross the distance separating the runway from the taxiway and take other pictures of the Phantoms returning to their shelters.
After this morning session we have been bused to a hangar, near which a static display have given us the chance to take pictures of the Phantoms together with their usual payloads. A couple of hours later other buses have brought us back to the runway; the afternoon session starts with another wave of four planes, repeating more or less the same manouvers performed in the morning. Once landed, they reached the end of the runway, in order to join with other six planes, preparing for the announced elephant walk, which has given a certain value to a Sunday otherwise grey.
To witness an elephant walk from such a short distance is not an event happening often to an enthusiast; the sound of twenty J-79, also if running almost idle, in order to advance very slowly on the runway, is a delighting symphony. Given the low speed, most of us have shuttled back and forth along the runway to capture different moments of this epic conclusion of two memorable days. Among the ten Phantoms three have been a nice surprise; two assigned to the 401st Test Squadron (easily recognisable by their orange tails) and one Filo 111 (111st Squadron) special red tail, celebrating the Turkish Republic centenary and quoting Kemal Ataturk’s famous motto “Freedom and Independence are my character”. By the way, Ataturk’s face is the one depicted in the tail of the black special colour, icon of the entire anniversary.
All of us, leaving the base late in the afternoon, are aware to have been part of an event that will remain in our memories (and in the pictures and video made available on the net) forever. Grateful to the Turkish Air Force for the invitation and the effort put in organizing such an anniversary, we hope that, when it will be time for those magnificent Phantoms to end their airworthy life, something even more memorable will be set up to celebrate such a sad circumstance!
His interest in photography arose a few years later, when he bought from a colleague his first single-lens reflex camera, a Pentax ME Super. Then everyday life took its toll; working as an IT analyst, studying for an MD in political science and starting a family left no time for enjoying his old interest for aviation. One day in 2008, he decided to revive the passion, starting again to take pictures of aircraft each time he has a chance. Now, using Canon gear, he is striving to become a photojournalist.
Gabriele can be reached at: [email protected]