The Deadliest Suitcase Ever Flown

Time was running out for the Soviets. The United States Air Force was gaining dominance of the skies with its latest aircraft, the F-111 Aardvark, and there was no Soviet fighter that could match it.
Nonetheless, despite the regime's pressure, the Soviet engineers knew what they were doing. Ten years in the making, Sukhoi unleashed its creation in the late 1970s: the Su-24 Fencer.
With its sweeping variable-geometry wings, the Su-24 could transform its silhouette from a nimble spearhead to gain speed to a broad-winged hunter to enhance its payload capacity and range.
Armed with state-of-the-art radar and elusive electronic countermeasures, the Su-24 Fencer was more than just a bomber or fighter. It was a versatile multi-role platform engineered to strike unseen and undeterred across diverse battlefields.
In its unveiling, the Soviets not only revealed a devastating weapon but a clear message destined for the Americans: They, too, could command the skies.
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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.

[@WolfVidya]

Jamming does not delete the aircraft from radar, it merely hinders targeting capacity and at best nullifies the reading of a small swath of sky where the plane is (which is why Home-On-Jam firing mode for some missiles exists).

[@Chio_OB]

Best taking this channel and its others as popcorn, some hard nuggets but mostly slightly crunchy time wasting (with pictures of everything else)

[@decimated550]

​@@Chio_OByeah this channel is fun. I listen to it mainly for the extremely autistic phrasing this guy uses. With these tremendously, powerful adjectives making just a simple statement of fact into this. Bombastic torrent of words,... Such as "...extremely lethal dominance against their adversarial antagonists"

[@sitrep123able]

It's amazing that it is still in active service for both Russia and Ukraine and is carrying storm shadows who would have thought

[@Patrick_919]

"I wonder what this button does." [Navigator gets yeeted from plane] "Oh."

[@300guy]

Actually it is even better than that, the planes have rubber butt plugs, which is exactly what they are, to keep the horizontal tail from moving by itself in a strong wind. Reason being, the co pilot stick was just slightly shorter than the pilot stick which was what allowed it to snag the crotch ejection release during some nonsense sitting on the tarmac. Instead of making it so that couldn't happen again, they just blocked the movement on the ground with the plugs.

[@Amtaw08735]

​@@300guy actually it was more because when the hydraulic system was off, the elevators would droop due to the weight, which is what caused the stick to go down, then when the hydraulic system was activated, as you said, the crotch ejection release was pulled and the first ever 0 ejection was made.

[@gruenerteufelDD]

The Su24 has never been a "multirole" aircraft. The F111 was initially meant to be a fighter but never employed in that role.

[@johnpowers6282]

Agreed. The only reason this aircraft is still relevant is because Russia cannot afford more SU-34’s.

[@pixelnazgul]

Yes, because it was not given ti iran.

[@bradmiller4652]

@keithsargent6963 F-111, and FB-111 were two different airframes flown for two different missions. The FB-111 had a larger wing and was used by Strategic Air Command for nuclear alert missions. The F-111 was used for interdiction.

[@gwramim4807]

​@@johnpowers6282 or rather time cause it's not a game where you just buy it there's time for production as well as stocks of s24 are high and they are more expandable

[@JosephDawson1986]

​@@bradmiller4652 the F111, FB111A and the EF111A are all the same airframe with different equipment. The airframe is the body, fuselage and wings and all the F111 based aircraft were all the same with only exception being the F111B a carrier based model that never left the drawing board.

[@curiousuranus810]

Ooohhh!! The ejector seat was the best bit.... the Soviets must have thought that was a gamechanger.

[@shooter963]

Surprisingly, the Sukhoi was almost the same size, same specifications, same mission, same crew, as the F111, just 10 years later. Did the Soviets copy the F111? The way they copied the B-29 into the TU-4? Did an American engineer leak critical information to the Soviets.

[@dalek3086]

did the Soviets steal the plans for Concorde and copy it ? were they given faulty plans ? Why did the TU 144 crash at the Paris Air Show ?

[@mickvonbornemann3824]

@@dalek3086 Tne French sent up a Mirage to take phots of the canards & cut in front of it, forcing the Soviets to take an evasive manoeuvre that didn’t gell. It all leaked out about 10 years ago & the leaked matched the facts so well the French felt they couldn’t deny it & admitted to it. It even made the news for a night & a day.

[@orangrandom5115]

They did copy the F-111's design, combined with some from Mirage G, noticeably, the landing gear.

[@Archer89201]

Its more closer to Tornado IDS in size and capabilities. The Tu-22M is more closer to F-111 in size and role

[@michaellinner7772]

What do you mean 'surprisingly'?

[@svaz2006]

One of the most elegant looking aircraft, IMO.

[@dmiller57]

Thanks for a nother great story

[@tmseh]

Highway to the danger zone...... Highway to the danger zoooooooone!

[@LordHolley]

Robert McNamara wanted one plane for all branches of the US military, thereby lowering overall cost. The F-111 was that plane. However, the Navy was pissed. They wanted their own plane, and the initial growing pains experienced by the f-111, things like the wings falling off helped to build the Navy's case. The Navy eventually got the F-14 instead. Eventually the issues were remedied, and the F-111 became an incredible plane. Apparently, the Australian military loved it the most. I believe they still have a couple in service, or they were recently retired.

[@scottvanessendelft408]

"Wings falling off"? You do know that Grumman built the swing wing for the 111, same system in the 14 Tomcats right?

[@shawnschroeder9704]

I don't believe you're correct on that. My uncle worked for Grumman and worked in the group that help design the process to weld the wing box for the f-14. They developed all that technology for the f-14 program well after the f-11 was built. I remember him talking about how long it took them to develop the tooling to be able to build that wing box. That was by far the most sophisticated part of the construction and it's part of what allowed the aircraft to shave a significant amount of weight from the overall weight. Simply because of how they were able to build the wing box materials they were able to use ​@@scottvanessendelft408

[@froginasock8782]

Retired from RAAF service in 2010. Wasn't ever updated enough in Aust service. Ref: Am RAAF.

[@oldbloke204]

@@scottvanessendelft408 Look into the history of it. As far as I remember it had failures of the apparatus but only knew what was going on when one that broke managed to make it home. It was in Vietnam from memory.

[@OldGlaseye-gf7si]

BS..The F-111 wasn't carrier 'capable' in that the pilot couldn't comfortably see over the nose. PLUS didn't have the radar to support the Phoenix..cheaper to build the Awg-9/Phoenix F-14...Than mod the F-111.

[@LeonAust]

F-111 could carry more bombs, faster, lower, longer and was the first of the two to equip with a laser designator FLIR pod in the weapons bay which was called Pave Tack. This combination of aircraft and weapon pod took out more targets and tanks in the Gulf war 1 and 2 than the F16 and the so called tank killer A10. If SU24 was given the same mission set it would have failed.

[@amerigo88]

BS. I was Army in Desert Storm and the USAF kill claims on "tank plinking" were off by 20X. Ask the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment tankers who crashed into an Iraqi tank battalion the Air Force had assured us was down to two tanks. Instead, they were only down by a few tanks and the other 46 rolled out of their revetments to fight with our Abrams and Bradleys. It's annoying to still be refuting that propaganda 33 years after the war.

[@prashanthb6521]

Dont repeat old propaganda.

[@bernarddavis1050]

Pity the F-111 had that fatal design flaw with its leaking wing tanks. That is mainly why it was retired from the RAAF in 2010. My pal wrote a book about it.

[@LeonAust]

@@bernarddavis1050 Fatal? when? It was built in 1967 retired in 2010. If the total airframe refurbishment was approved with the wing oversize fasteners deseal reseal and they used the super hornet and Growlers purchased money (9 to 10 billion) into the total refurbishment of say 28 F-111C and 12 USAF EF-111G with a rebuilt airframe new engines, radar, ESM, ECM, an aircraft of superior long range, speed and attack capabilities would have been produced. B-52H were built in 1963 and still give the USAF 1st rate very long range cruise missile capability after many refurbishments.

[@charlesrussell8557]

One thing nobody takes into account if GPS goes down if satellites get destroyed and you can't use all your technology the basics will still work and they have them in abundance

[@jimmyjohnjames6397]

The United States military has backups for GPS.

[@Elthenar]

@@jimmyjohnjames6397 Yup. Pretty much everything has intertial navigation as a backup in case the GPS gets jammed.

[@anterogradus]

A little late for the party, but Paper Skies has an excellent story on mentioned catapult chair incident and why that event caused this plane to grow balls.

[@michaelgautreaux3168]

Britain flubbed the TSR, didn't buy -111. If the TSR would have made production, guess what the Su-24 would have resembled. That thought has been thrown around w/ some frequency.

[@dalek3086]

UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson cancelled TSR -2. Only two airframes were kept , the rest were destroyed. Bit mysterious. USA potentially benefits , also Wilson suspected of being a Soviet spy. Read Spycatcher by Peter Wright, former senior M15 officer. Bit like the Canadian Avro 105 Arrow was cancelled, and largely destroyed , and many Canadian designers, engineers and scientists ended up working in USA. Flubbed it ?

[@AC_702]

It would've looked like the F-111. I know this is not a popular opinion, but the TSR2 wouldn't have been able to beat the F111

[@axeman3d]

The aircraft ejected the pilot due to the elevators hanging down when powered off, pushing the stick into the guys crotch where the eject handles were. As soon as the elevators got powered it pulls the stick forward and BOOM! Did they fix it? No, they use rope to hold the elevators up when parked.

[@Sacto1654]

Teh Su-24 was essentially tasked with the same mission as the Panavia Tornado--high-speed interdiction strikes at low altitude, sometimes carrying tactical nuclear weapons. It would have been tasked with taking out airport runways all over West Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

[@decimated550]

Su-24s would have zoomed at supersonic speed right past tornado and f11s going in the opposite direction. Neither would have interfered with the other, since they both had their essential mission of busting enemy airfields

[@decimated550]

12:40 there's an example of the autistic grammar fails using terrains as a word

[@ianray8823]

NAVIGATOR WHERE YOU GOING BRO?!?

[@larryayres7412]

I LOVE THOSE PLANES ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ BADASS!!!!!!!

[@anandnairkollam]

Time is always running out in these videos

[@bassetdad437]

And every aeroplane is a big surprise/shock/insane( Unless you read aviation magazines)

[@edutaimentcartoys]

nice video

[@300guy]

See the Navy should have gotten Sukhoi to build their version of the F-111B instead of Grumman, then it would have passed muster for weight and size. 😅😂

[@Opozit1]

Thats a beast

[@petepie789]

Note, Su-24 nose design stolen from F-111, the rest, stolen from Mirage G. The nose design was confirmed by the designer himself to be essentially copied. The rest is speculated due to extreme similarities and the previously mentioned designer's fascination with the Mirage G when he saw it.

[@kylekyle5438]

@petepie This is arrogant and flat out misleading misinformation about the SU-24 and aviation in general. Firstly the SU-24 came before the Mirage G, secondly the Soviets had variable geometry winged aircraft dating back to the 1950s such as SU-7, which also existed before the Mirage G and F-111. Ignoring the fact that the SU-24 came before the Mirage G, how can it be a copy when it has completely different intakes, fuselage, and cockpit layout? Having similarities or being expired by other aircraft is not copying. Since you are so adamant about copying, the Soviets had twin engine, single stabilizer aircraft well before the Mirage came along……so you might want to do better research next time… Some westerns can’t breathe without accusing the Soviets or others of “stealing” everything even if it’s not at all true or even the other way around. Back to the F-111/SU-24 argument, the “nose” of the SU-24 and F-111 have completely different designs and geometry, moreover, the F-111 was not the first side by side tandem aircraft as those have existed since the 1930 including in the Soviet Union with mostly bombers, reconnaissance or civilian aircraft such as Be-8 which has a cockpit very similar to cockpit designs in mostly later western aircraft such as OV-1, T-37, Hawker Hunter, and A-6 which all came before the F-111….you seem like the type of person that would claim the Yak-141 was an F-35 copy.

[@jagsdomain203]

I still thing the Varc could be relevant today

[@geodkyt]

Not so much. Operating costs were high compared to what you get. F-15EX can carry nearly as much, has higher performance, and wider capabilities, at a lower operating cost, for instance.

[@JimGeigerMusic]

😂

[@GTech_builds]

you guy (s) just keep making better and better videos

[@auro1986]

variable swing wings carry less weapons and less fuel

[@curiousgeorge5992]

Explain the bone then😮😢🤔🧐

[@TrumpIsrael2024]

So this is the predecessor to Starscream...😆

[@fahimsami321]

Su 24 is carrying stormshadow missile today in Ukrain

[@guyh.4553]

Doesn’t the Su-24 look a lot like the F-111 or is it just me? There were EF-111s based at Mtn. Home Air Force Base in Idaho. My dad & I went to an air show there one time & their EF-111s were on display. I was able to sit in one of those and boy it was an amazing bird. The FB/EF-111s are one of my few jets that are my favorite's. 😊😊😊

[@every1665]

No coincidence. The Soviets were directly looking at the threat posed by the F-111 when they developed this. I'm Australian and our air force had the F-111 as it's front line 'fast jet' from the early 70's until gradually replaced by F/A-18 'Hornets' and Super Hornets and now the JSF. The 'Aardvark' is one of the sexiest looking planes ever though!

[@greatgazoo95]

I understand But the overhead view of the Su-24 (6:45) was, indeed, a military shape that oozed absolutely beautiful malevolence I had a few of the little, metal model airplanes, as a kid And, I assume that, likewise, there are a lot of readers out there who share the same scenario All of mine were Western fighters But if, as a kid, I had seen that bad-ass shape being available for sale, I would have begged my parents like a Turkish Gypsy! LOL

[@tropsail]

What's the name of the background music?

[@67cudaksa34]

the su24 was really never tested in actual combat against western aircraft

[@brianv1988]

But I bet you're aircraft can't fart fire like a dragon😅

[@mop4232]

Make swing-wing aircraft great again.

[@pixelnazgul]

Iran did. Is that good enough?

[@worldwanderer91]

​@@pixelnazgulwhere and what fighter model?

[@RichardFraser-y9t]

All drones, all the time.

[@TheDustyShed]

@@worldwanderer91they fly F14s when they have enough spare parts to keep them in the air.

[@dan-jacobenglish1559]

I'm still upset the F-14 didn't get his upgrade to be competitive as a gen 4.5 Super Tom Cat. I imagine it with vector thrust and get a chubby. You can't tell me that idea isn't pure tech boner.

[@dennisboulais7905]

The F-111 was hugely expensive failure. It did nothing well.

[@gadget6623]

Huh? It did the raids on Tripoli, and the more effective hits in desert storm.

[@stephenpage-murray7226]

Best strike bomber. Unmatched capabilities

[@Charles-k9g5y]

Who had the first look down, shoot down system?

[@gadget6623]

YF12.

[@LittleManFlying]

It... didn't have basic IFF?

[@johnchrysostomon6284]

If the F-111 was so great why did only 2 nations operate it?

[@TheDustyShed]

F22 raptor and F117 is operated by only one.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

Cost a lot of money, other nations had their own aviation programs they were pushing. The Europeans decided to produce the Tornado.

[@WALTERBROADDUS]

​@@TheDustyShedneither were offered for export.

[@Thunder_6278]

How come we don't copy them? HMMMM

[@orlandoclark8062]

Low budget F -111

[@kennyl9419]

Regardless of what the US government has said, the Soviets built some badass aircraft!!!

[@Texadane]

They solved a lot of things by brute force. This grants them longevity but not superiority. The challenge most Russian aircraft has is their crude technology and limited performance. The US will throw money at a problem until it’s solved, eg. F-15, whereas the Russians just went in a different direction never really solving for the initial problem

[@Use-or-Lose]

Russkies,- “We’ve gotta get us some of those!” (F-111’s).

[@Averagevenator]

2 minute ago is crazy

[@jamesragus1577]

Complimentary algorithm enhancement comment!😊

[@dual5ivese7ens]

Obviously it's a stolen copy of the F111 with a few changes.

[@salvehn]

What about mig23?

[@265justy]

Piece of crap. The Mig-23 was the worst fighter ever made.

[@jonnycomfort9271]

"The United States Air Force was gaining dominance of the skies with its latest aircraft, the F-111 Aardvark, and there was no Soviet fighter that could match it."----um, no. The F-111 was NOT a fighter, and did NOT "Gain dominance of the skies" since it was strictly an air to ground platform. Come on, do better than that.

[@merlinwizard1000]

89th, 29 June 2024

[@edwardpate6128]

The MiG-23 much more of a multi role aircraft.

[@52down]

MiG-23 was purely a frontline interceptor, not even a proper fighter, not to mention it's overall inability for strike missions

[@265justy]

The Mig-27 was the ground attack version of the Mig-23. Probably a better comparison.

[@joeybavis]

Russian drone factory pops up in Belgorod Oblast. Ukrainian reaction: "use the Storm Shadows!" Su-24 fires Storm Shadow at factory. factory gets hit by Storm Shadow and blows up. Russian government reaction: "we shot down their missiles but they still damaged the factory and set fire to a fuel tank." Russian mil bloggers reaction: "THEY DESTROYED THE FACTORY, PUTIN MUST DO SOMETHING TO AVENGE THE FACTORY!" Putin's Reaction: "it was Ukrainian terrorists and we shall fire 50 drones at them in response." two weeks later, Kyiv Independent reports: "russia fired 15 drones at us last night. 14 were shot down and 1 hit an apartment building. no one was harmed by the attack." Su-24 Pilot: Smirks and goes back to polishing his plane.

[@bernarddavis1050]

You have been marinating too long in Ukronazi propaganda pal..

[@joeybavis]

@@bernarddavis1050 its better then russian propaganda, namely in the fact you can still find a fair amount of honesty (even if its inflated a bit for drama) in Ukrainian stuff. hard to find much honestly from the russian devil.

[@Mike9999-v2o]

Youve never been in a real fighter

[@princybella5386]

🐃🦬🐂💩! The US already had dominance in the air The Soviet Fighters were overrated from the beginning and the F-4 Phantom not the F-111 ruled the skies.

[@oxcart4172]

It usually takes around 5 years for a military jet to enter service

[@prashanthb6521]

More like 10 years.

[@oxcart4172]

@@prashanthb6521 I meant once flight tests start

[@JSFGuy]

Notification.

[@mauricio-wq5lu]

The USNavy remembers th SU24s after they used EW to to "f" the destroyer Cook blind while in the Black Sea.

[@murder.simulator]

Doesn't take a genius to copy someome elses work

[@VictorianAerialVision]

Sounds like they cloned the F-111 to me.

[@KBMaximus]

LFGGGGGG🎉😂

[@Black_0pCar0lina]

F-16 will drag this thing

[@Zach-ku6eu]

Ah yes, another Russian Failure!