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The information is probably apocryphal, but I have heard that switch panel markings can have little to do with intended payloads. The mfr just puts it all on the panel to cover any contingency as the procurement process grinds onward. "Of course we can carry nukes, see, we have a switch!"The example I was cited was the arming switch on the F-4, which apparently had CONVENTIONAL and NUCLEAR positions, but no SAFE position. Since, I was told, the F-4 did not normally carry nuclear weapons, the nuclear position was used as the 'safe' setting. My conjecture is that something like this could have been done on the F-111.Again, probably apocryphal, probably wrong for numerous versions of the Phantom if not all, and likely completely wrong vis a vis the F-111.
The information is probably apocryphal, but I have heard that switch panel markings can have little to do with intended payloads. The mfr just puts it all on the panel to cover any contingency as the procurement process grinds onward. "Of course we can carry nukes, see, we have a switch!"
The example I was cited was the arming switch on the F-4, which apparently had CONVENTIONAL and NUCLEAR positions, but no SAFE position. Since, I was told, the F-4 did not normally carry nuclear weapons, the nuclear position was used as the 'safe' setting. My conjecture is that something like this could have been done on the F-111.
Again, probably apocryphal, probably wrong for numerous versions of the Phantom if not all, and likely completely wrong vis a vis the F-111.
