By the early 1960s, the USAF in England had a very mixed collection of aircraft. RF-101s, various versions of the B-66 and B-57, and F-84s and F-86s comprised USAFE's tactical aircraft arsenal. This large number of different aircraft was a maintenance and logistics nightmare because all the different parts for all the different aircraft had to be kept in stock. Indeed, this issue was not confined to the UK or just USAFE. There was a need for standardization and also to modernize for an aircraft which could perform many different tasks from air defense to ground support and aerial reconnaissance. The McDonnell
F-4 Phantom II was that aircraft. On 12 May 1965 the first F-4 Phantom arrived in the UK where it all began, with an RF-4C arriving at
RAF Alconbury to replace the 10th TRW's RB-66s. In October, the F-101C "Voodoos" at Bentwaters/Woodbridge were also replaced by F-4Cs, as well as the F-100s at RAF Lakenheath. The F-4 Phantoms remained in the UK for the next 20 years, being replaced by the next generation of F-15/F-16s in the mid-1980s. On 21 February 1966, French President
Charles de Gaulle announced that France would loosen its ties to NATO. He announced that French forces were no longer available to the Allies, and all foreign army and air force units, as well as NATO Headquarters must be removed from France by 1 April 1967. Losing the French bases was a blow to USAFE. At the time it comprised eleven tactical units plus four interceptor squadrons. A large-scale relocation plan,
Operation FRELOC was developed to remove all USAF aircraft and equipment, as well as 33,000 USAFE personnel and their families from France. As a result of FRELOC, USAFE's presence in England grew considerably. Three fighter wings, the 20th TFW at
RAF Wethersfield, the 48th TFW at
RAF Lakenheath and the 81st TFW at
RAF Bentwaters came under 3d Air Force. Between these three wings were about 225 aircraft, mainly
F-100 Super Sabre and
F-4 Phantom IIs. USAFE in England also included two Tactical Reconnaissance Wings, the 10th at
RAF Alconbury and the 66th at
RAF Upper Heyford with between them about 100
RF-101s and
RF-4Cs, along with the 513th Troop Carrier Wing at
RAF Mildenhall. Also,
RAF Burtonwood, which was operating as a reserve USAFE base since the opening of
Châteauroux-Déols Air Base in the early 1950s was turned over to the US Army in 1966 and was renamed
Burtonwood Army Depot. The Army transferred all of its stores and equipment in France to Burtonwood and operated the facility as its primary storage and logistics depot for 7th Army support in Europe until the mid-1990s. In the 1970s, the
General Dynamics F-111 arrived at Upper Heyford. In 1978 the first of about 120
A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft arrived at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbrige. Originally six squadrons were assigned to the 81st TFW, however later two squadrons were moved to the
10th Tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Alconbury. Close Air Support missions made the A-10 vulnerable to ground fire, so most of the underside of the aircraft is made of armoured titanium. To stay out of reach of hostile radar, many of the A-10's missions were flown at nearly ground level. The A-10s in the UK were painted in a special camouflage scheme designed for European weather conditions, made from a special type of paint that can absorb 60% of the sun's rays. Because different densities of paint were used, its colors tended to change in different light conditions. ==Air Transport and Special Operations==