The electronic structure of the ground and low-lying states of the diatomic fluorides TiF, VF, CrF, and MnF was examined by multireference and coupled cluster methods in conjunction with extended basis sets. For a total of 34 states we report binding energies, spectroscopic constants, dipole moments, separation energies, and charge distributions. In addition, for all states we have constructed full potential curves. The suggested ground state binding energies of TiF(X(4)Phi), VF(X(5)Pi), CrF(X(6)Sigma(+)), and MnF(X(7)Sigma(+)) are 135, 130, 110, and 108 kcal/mol, respectively, with first excited states A(4)Sigma(-), A(5)Delta, A(6)Pi, and a(5)Sigma(+) about 2, 3, 23, and 19 kcal/mol higher. In essence all our numerical findings are in harmony with experimental results. For all molecules and states studied it is clear that the in situ metal atom (M) shows highly ionic character, therefore the binding is described realistically by M+F-. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.