The West Goes Shopping:
The presence of the Soviet Tu-22 Blinders permanently based on East Austrian soil was not particularly welcomed by Austrians on either side of the Linz Line. Both Austrias were firmly non-nuclear states in both civil and military contexts and preferred very much to stay that way.
Knowing that the Blinder was capable of carrying nuclear weapons, despite what the Soviets had said about the Austrian based ones being purely reconnaissance versions, was controversial at all levels of Austrian life on both sides of the line. Protests to have the aircraft transferred to a Soviet base elsewhere in the Warsaw Pact were quite commonplace, but ultimately ineffective.
In a move of “good faith”, the Soviet military attaché to East Austria formally invited NATO to send a small envoy of experts to Klosterneuburg to see the aircraft up close. The envoy was satisfied that about half the aircraft they saw were indeed true recconaissance variants. However, they came away a bit more suspicious of the nature of the remaining aircraft. When pressed, the attache conceded that some conventional strike ability had been retained in those aircraft, though any ability in them to carry nuclear devices had been permanently diabled. This really did very little to ease the suspicions among the envoy members and they returned to debrief at the West Austrian ministry of defense with the recommendation that West Austria immediately reinstate tactical strike into it’s defensive mandate and that NATO would subsidise any aircraft that the West Austrians chose for the job.
With a blank cheque from NATO in hand, the West Austrians went shopping.
Decisions, Decisions:
In the late 1960s there was not so much in the way of tactical strike types to choose from. The TSR.2 had been cancelled, the F-111 was having teething problems and the newer strike types, like the Sepecat Jaguar and Mirage F.1 were still on drawing boards. 1968 was drawing to a close and West Austria had a decision to make.
France
The first offer came from France. In the wake of the TSR.2 Cancellation, Dassault had hoped to sell Britain on the idea of a Spey engined Mirage IV. Ultimately, this went nowhere. However, hopes to export the Mirage IV were rekindled when West Austria came looking.
Dassault went to great lengths to make the aircraft as attractive as they could toWest Austria. They had strengthened the fuselage and added several hard points along it for greater weapons carriage. The volume of the faired over recessed weapon bay added some much needed internal fuel capacity and the ability to carry more bombs on fuselage stations meant that the wing stations could be reserved for the much needed drop tanks and ECM pods.
France also offered wide freedom to West Austria in tailoring the aircraft to their own specific needs as far as avionics were concerned, this would certainly be welcome news to the country’s technology sector, which was very quickly developing a reputation as a world leader.
An option to buy the upcoming Mirage F.1 was added shortly after the initial Mirage IV offer was made as an added incentive.
The primary dowside to the French offer was that the Mirage IV was known to be a purpose designed nuclear strike type. Despite the alterations to make it solidly non nuclear capable for Austrian stipulations, there was little doubt that the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact in general would contest it’s presence in West Austria every bit as much as the Tu-22’s was in the east.
Great Britain
Great Britain came with what most considered a predictable proposal.
Their offer of the venerable Blackburn Buccaneer was not at all surprising. A widely respected and known quantity as strike aircraft were concered, it certainly was a serious contender to bring strike back into the West Austrian air arsenal.
The RAF already had a wing of Buccaneers in West Austria and so the Austrian forces had plenty of chances to see it up close and work with it, or against it, in joint excercises. They, as most anyone who encountered the aircraft has been, were impressed by it in most aspects.
Despite the fact that the Buccaneer was proven and solid, and that it had been offered to West Austria with some latitude for the country’s domsetic technology sector to upgrade systems in it, there were a few sticking points:
The primary concern was that the Buccaneer was the oldest design being offered and, like the RAF, the Austrians would be getting refurbished FAA machines. There was no escaping the fact that they would be getting second hand gear in the Buccaneer.
Second was the upgradability of the aircraft. It was a 50s design and had been in service since the early 60s, there was some serious debate about just how much upgrading could be done to it.
Third, it was subsonic. The West Austrians wanted a supersonic striker if they could get it.
U.S.A.
Despite knowing the decidedly eurocentric leanings of West Austria, two offers came from America.
McDonnell Douglas offered their F-4D Phantom II with an option for the upcoming E version.
The West Austrians were rather luke warm to the D version as they felt it represented design traits of earlier generation Phantoms. However, they were very interested in the E. The aircraft did have clear potential for upgrades and some flexibility for domestic systems tailoring was included in the offer.
The only obvious downside to the Phantom offer was that the year was 1968, the US was still mired down in South East Asia and McDonnel Douglas clearly stated that there might be some delay in the delivery of a batch of E variants if West Austria chose to order them. USAF needs for the aircraft had to be met first.
The second American offer came in the form of General Dynamic’s F-111
The West Austrians were more than a bit sceptical of the aircraft from the very moment the offer was put on the table. While it was a new design, and supersonic, it’s teething problems were well publicised.
While not ignorant of the fact that the F-111 was full of new technology, which certainly needed time to mature, the loss of three USAF F-111’s earlier in the year due to malfunctions during Combat Lancer operations weighed in heavily on the West Austrian decision to ultimately drop it from their short list. Shortly after the decision, a West Austrian general who had been taken for a flight in the F-111 said this of the aircraft:
“It was a delightful flight in all aspects and this is clearly an aircraft of tremendous potential. I have no doubt that, should it survive this clearly long and painful birth that it is enduring, it will become an aircraft that those who work with it will feel honoured to do so. It is a true pity that my nation’s needs are too immediate for us to wait for this aircraft to be fully born.”
Flyoffs and general wheeling and dealing
The short listed aircraft were systematically and rigorously demonstrated for their operability in the high alpine environment as well as lower flatland terrain. The Mirage, Buccaneer and Phantom were in a very tight race indeed, all performing admirably with seemingly very little left to choose between them. Even the Buccanner’s firmly subsonic performance seemed to be a near non issue, being easily offset with some of the most accurate weapons delivery demonstrations of the three types.
The Mirage IV’s redisigned lower fuselage with it’s hard points was working perfectly, with no diminished performance in any aspect.
The Phantom was the Phantom, rock solid all around and not leaving much to want for.
The final decision would be very difficult indeed. The French seemed to be ahead based on the high degree of flexibility they were willing to give the West Austrians in domestically upgrading the Mirage and the option for the Mirage F.1 when it was ready.
Britain and America needed to come up with some counter incentives.
The first option fielded by Britain was an option to buy the upcoming Sepecat Jaguar, built to the British standard.
Second was an option to buy the Rapier SAM system to replace the Bloodhounds that the Austrians currently had in use
The Rapiers were more interesting to the Austrians as the Bloodhounds were getting more difficult to maintain. If the Tu-22s were indeed to be a permanent fixture in East Austrian skies, the option to show them some quite modern SAMs were on hand to counter them was attractive.
The Jaguar prototype had only just flown earlier in the year, so it was too early to tell if it would lead to anything. It was also known that the Sepecat consortium was having disagreements as to exactly what form the aircraft would ultimately take. The Jaguar seemed too much of a gamble at the time to be of much intrest.
American incentives seemed a bit on the limited side.
The first incentive was the immediate provision of a loaned fleet of USAF F-4D aircraft, plus training on them, until an order for the F-4E could be filled. With West Austria’s rather cool reception to the D model and McDonnell Douglas being somewhat non commital about when an order for the E model could be filled, it was almost more of a disincentive.
McDonnel Douglas, in lieu of anything else immediately combat realted to provide, offered the newest version of their DC-9 airliner to replace the few remaining Vickers Viscounts that were still soldiering on in West Austrian hands. While certainly outside the scope of a competition to choose a combat type, the offer of the DC-9 did hold a certain appeal, the Viscounts couldn’t go on much longer.
The Decision:
After much heated discussion, the West Austrian ministry of defence, with no small pressure from the economic development ministry, opted for the Mirage IV.
Many were immediately critical of the choice due to the aircraft’s original purpose a nuclear weapon carrier. Some felt the aircraft was too much for the nation’s requirements, that the country had set out to buy a tactical strike aircraft and brought home a full out bomber. The arguments against it were numerous. However, the arguments for it were more economic than military. It was one more way for the country’s now very proud technologies sector to shine, not to mention fully diversify into avionics. They had gotten their feet wet with avionics contributions to the Fiat F-104Gs they had bought and were even more deeply involved with the F-014S which was very soon to enter service. They were ready for more and the Mirage IV, as France had offered it to them, gave them a near blank canvas to show off on.
The criticisms and controversies would follow the Mirage IV-O through most of it’s career, but the decision was made and would go ahead.
Outwardly, the Mirage IV-O was a slightly different looking beast than it’s standard French counterpart. Gone was the radar on the underside of the fuselage, it’s volume replaced with additional internal fuel. The fuselage forward of the cockpit had been completely redesigned to hold all of the radar equipment in a nose radome. It was, in many ways, a much more capable radar than the French aircraft had. The Mirage IV-O was also subject to regular cockpit upgrades through it’s life. West Austria ultimately was the Mirage IV’s only export customer though many of the systems that the West Austrians created for it were purchased by other countries and adapted to other aircraft types.
Eventually, some of the IV-O upgrades were purchased and retrofitted to some French Mirage IVs. Despite having it’s nuclear abilities removed from it with the advent of the Mirage 2000N in French service, the Mirage IV-O upgrades allowed the ADA Mirage IVs to remain potent conventional bomb haulers for several years on.
In accordance with the French deal, West Austria also became the first export customer of the Mirage F.1, which replaced the remaining Hunters shortly after being introduced.
Western Base Shakeups:
Of course, a place was needed to keep the new aircraft, but the only runway long enough to handle the Mirage IV safely in West Austria was at Braunau. A decision was quickly made to hand Braunau from transport command over to tactical. The Hercules aircraft went to Salzburg, the Buffalo and Twin Otter unit went to Innsbruck and the Super Frelons went to Landeck.
The Mirage F.1s were a rather simpler matter to house; they simply took the place of the Hunters at Ebensee.
Transports and SAMs:
As a footnote, West Austria did buy the Rapier SAMs and a small fleet of DC-9s through separate competitions.
The DC-9 just slightly beat out the BAC 1-11 in the transport competition. It was chosen more for it’s potential longevity than anything else.