The precise details of how Combat Tree worked are still classified to this very day, but we do know, to an extent, how Phantom aircrews used it. Back then, Combat Tree was a next-generation game-changer which would only be equipped on a select number of F-4Ds, which would fly in hunter/killer packs with other F-4Es (Phantoms built with internal rotary cannons). Today, we call the system involved "Non-Cooperative Target Recognition", after having developed it for years. Sounds like some newfangled stealth capability you'd expect to come stock on a fifth generation fighter, like the F-22 Raptor or the F-35 Lightning II, right?īut what if I were to tell you that the US Air Force possessed such a capability as far back as the early 1970s, far before the F-22 and concepts of its ilk were even on the minds of engineers who'd eventually design them? Heck, more than half of those engineers and designers were probably still finishing off college or hadn't yet completed grade school.Ĭalled the APX-80, but more popularly known by its codename, "Combat Tree", this top secret technology was first equipped on McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom IIs, the US Air Force's primary fighter-bomber aircraft. Imagine, as a fighter pilot, being able to see your enemy without them knowing you're even in the area.
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