praised: "engines are good and the radar is excellent" in the words of a pilot. Despite their age and the lack of combat slats these aircraft served well until being phased out in January 1991 in favour of surplus Phantom FGR.2s, before the Phantom was finally retired in 1992. After 25 years of service the Phantoms ended their RAF career: as a result of the Options for Change military budget reduction in 1990, it was decided to phase out the Phantom. These aircraft were designed for a lifetime of only 1,000 hours but were pushed to 5,800 hours, many of them flown at low-level. First units to disband were the RAF Wildenrath-based 19 and 92 Squadrons, which were the last air defence units to serve in RAF Germany, followed by 56 Squadron in May 1992. The last Phantom squadron, 74 Squadron was disbanded on 1 October 1992. Units Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm 700P Naval Air Squadron 767 Naval Air Squadron 892 Naval Air Squadron Phantom Post-Operational Conversion Unit Royal Air Force No. 2 Squadron No. 6 Squadron No. 14 Squadron No. 17 Squadron No. 19 Squadron No. 23 Squadron No. 29 Squadron No. 31 Squadron No. 41 Squadron No. 43 Squadron No. 54 Squadron No. 56 Squadron No. 64 Squadron/No. 228 Operational Conversion Unit No. 74 Squadron No. 92 Squadron No. 111 Squadron No. 1435 Flight Phantom Training Flight Phantom Conversion Flight Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment See also F-4 Phantom II F-4 Phantom II variants F-4 Phantom II U.S. operators References Notes Citations Bibliography Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin. The Israeli Connection: Whom Israel Arms and Why. London: I.G Tauris, 1987. . Bishop, Farzad and Tom Cooper. Iranian F-4 Phantom II Units in Combat (Osprey Combat Aircraft #37). Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing Limited, 2003. . Bonsignore, Ezio. Un caccia ad interim per la Germania? (in Italian) RID, Issue 10, 1994. Calvert, Denis. RAF Retires her Phantoms. (in Italian) Aerei Magazione, March 1993. Calvert, Denis. The RAF's Tigers. (in Italian) Aerei, Issue 5, 1991. Cruz, Gonzalo Avila. Iberian Phantoms. Air Enthusiast. Number 114, November/December 2004, pp. 28–41. Stamford Lincolnshire: Key Publishing. . Donald, David. RAF Phantoms. Wings of Fame. London: Aerospace. Volume 15, 1999, pp. 4–21. . Donald, David and Jon Lake. Encyclopedia of World Military Aircraft. London: Aerospace. Single Volume Edition, 1996. . Foster, Peter. I Phantom della HHA. (in Italian) Aerei, Issue 9, 1998. Fricker, John. Boeing /McDonnell Douglas F-4