Direct proof of use
The F-4 Phantom II is directly documented in the 1990 Gulf War through the F-4G Wild Weasel, a U.S. Air Force conversion of the F-4E Phantom II for suppression of enemy air defenses. The National Museum of the United States Air Force identifies its F-4G as a 35th Tactical Fighter Wing aircraft that launched more than 40 missiles during Operation Desert Storm from January 17 to February 28, 1991, and states that the F-4G mission was to attack enemy air defenses, including surface-to-air missile air-defense radars.
Campaign-level Gulf War airpower research places F-4G Wild Weasel aircraft in the U.S. Desert Storm order of battle and describes their use with AGM-88 HARM missiles against Iraqi radars. A CSIS-published Gulf War chapter lists F-4Gs at Shaikh Isa, Bahrain, and Incirlik, Turkey, records more than 2,600 F-4G sorties, and says the aircraft accompanied coalition strike packages early in the war before patrolling as continuous radar-suppression aircraft.
Sources: NMUSAF F-4G Wild Weasel, CSIS Gulf War Air Campaign
Combat chronology
Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, and F-4G Wild Weasels were part of the opening air-defense-suppression effort. The CSIS Gulf War chapter describes an early Baghdad-area strike package that included 12 F-4G Wild Weasels with HARMs, alongside jammers, drones, and other HARM-armed aircraft.
The same account describes the southern suppression pattern in which drones and electronic-warfare aircraft stimulated or jammed Iraqi radar activity, after which F-4G Wild Weasels used HARMs against Iraqi radars. It later summarizes the F-4G force as aircraft that accompanied strike packages early in the war and then acted as roving suppression aircraft over the battlefield.
Sources: CSIS Gulf War Air Campaign
Operational role
The documented Phantom role in this conflict was U.S. coalition suppression of enemy air defenses, not general fighter-bomber strike employment by standard F-4E units. The F-4G carried a pilot and an electronic-warfare officer, used the AN/APR-47 electronic-warfare system in place of the F-4E gun, and worked with other F-4Gs or as a hunter aircraft directing fighter-bombers against surface-to-air missile sites.
Air & Space Forces Magazine's July 1991 account of Wild Weasel operations describes the F-4G/F-16C team operating against Iraqi air defenses, with the F-4G using its APR-47 system to detect, locate, and provide threat information for HARM employment. The article says the presence of Wild Weasels became a go/no-go factor for strike packages and that the F-4G/F-16C combination proved viable in the northern theater.
The sourced record separates variant and operator clearly. The aircraft documented here were U.S. Air Force F-4G Wild Weasels, an F-4E-derived Phantom II conversion; the sources do not support Iraqi operation of Phantom aircraft in the Gulf War or use of standard U.S. F-4E strike aircraft as the primary Phantom contribution.
Sources: NMUSAF F-4G Wild Weasel, Air & Space Forces Weasels at War
