USAF F-4 Phantom II paint schemes


In its 30+ year career with the US Air Force, the F-4 Phantom II wore several distinctive paint schemes, unlike its  Navy brothers. They started out in the same scheme, though – Gull gray and white:

This scheme was still in use during the first months of the Vietnam War, but quickly replaced by the famous South-East Asian scheme of medium green, dark green and tan, with light gray lower surfaces. A “wraparound” version (green/tan also on lower surfaces) existed as well. The SEA scheme remained in use into the 1980s.

The European One scheme replaced the tan of the SEA wraparound scheme with dark gray. As the name implies, this scheme was popular with USAF squadrons stationed in Europe.

Phantom squadrons tasked with air defense used a different scheme, ADC (air defense command) gray, an overall semi-gloss gray.

Late in their career, some Phantoms (especially the F-4G Wild Weasels) wore the Hill Gray scheme, which it shared with the “Teen” fighters F-15 and F-16.

Pictures are from Wikimedia Commons and Defense Media Network.

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