IAF looks to replace A-4 Skyhawks

roles

I don't think they have any other role besides the advancing training role, Israel I guess could use them in a pinch for attack purposes. There would have to be a good reason to use them to begin with and at that point you may see Kfir C-7s coming out of storage.

12-Kfir C-7s are being upgraded to C-10 standards and sold to Colombia and a further 12 Colombian C-3 or C-7s are being upgraded to 10 standards. There should be in total 24 Kfir C-10 in the end, this was done I guess to offset Venezuela's (24) Su-30mk2v Flankers. This should be the 4th year for Venezuela's pilots training program. I guess a cocky Flanker pilot could get shot down by a Kfir C-10 pilot?
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Israel has a bunch of ACE upgraded A/B Vipers that would be used before A-4s and Kfir's, I would think. Don't know about stored or reserved F-15s, I can only assume there are some but don't know that for a fact.
 
Against a Flanker

I like Kfir's a lot and think it was a really cool upgrade at the time a great way of using what resources Israel had at the time. I'm a fan of the whole Mirage family III,V,50,2000 but against a Flanker that's rough.

A pilot from a different forum told me that if skilled Flanker pilot got 225/250 hours flying and trained against different aircraft and had good maintenance that a Flanker can be and already is deadly. Most pilots won't say how much they respect this platform but it must in the hands of a good pilot. The ARRAMS is better then the AA-12, jamming and other goodies help some as well.

Not the right thread for this but with it's range & payload I always wanted to see a F-15E type Flanker made. The added air to ground training cost, lack of dictated platforms available and more I guess keep this from happening. Let face Russia's never going to get the Su-34 into production and while there are old Su-24s to use for part Russia's current Su-24's aren't going anywhere fast.
 
Israel’s Skyhawk Scandal Leads to End of an Era

I found a little more on this mighty aircraft not sure what the scandal is.

McDonnell Douglas’ A-4 Skyhawk, aka. “Scooter,” has a long and storied career as a carrier-based attack aircraft with the US Navy. It’s old enough that Sen. John McCain was flying one when he was shot down over North Vietnam. It also has a storied land-based career with the Israeli Air Force, however, which used this simple, pilot-friendly aircraft from late 1967 onward as a versatile attack aircraft with surprising air-air teeth. In one engagement during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, an Israeli A-4 Skyhawk found itself facing 3 MiG-21s. The maneuverable little Skyhawk turned on them and brought 2 of them down, and was reportedly on the 3rd Fishbed’s tail when an IAF Mirage IIIC zipped through and blasted the MiG out of the sky. The little A-4’s surprising maneuverability was coupled with an equally surprising ability to take battle damage, but the type took heavy losses in the 1973 war: of 102 aircraft lost, 53 were Skyhawks.
Per mission losses in 1973 were just 0.6%, a lower figure than the previous 1970 War of Attrition with Egypt. Nevertheless, the writing was on the wall. When the F-16 was made available to Israel, the A-4s began to take a back seat. Some did participate in the 1982 Lebanon War, and one even scored a MiG-17 kill. By that time, however, squadron migrations to the F-16 had already begun, and 33 of the Skyhawks had been sold to Indonesia. By the mid 1990s almost all of Israel’s fighter squadrons had migrated, and 2000-2001 saw a handful of Israeli Skyhawks sold to corporate operators in BAE and ATSI. A number of A-4E/H/N aircraft are currently stored at Ovda Air Base, some planes have been used as electronic warfare support aircraft, and the “Flying Tigers” of 102 Squadron at Hatzerim Air Base still use their A-4Ns and 2-seat TA-4Js for advanced IAF pilot training.
These surviving aircraft require maintenance, which was being provided by the contractor Kanfei Tahzuka via Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Unfortunately, the little plane that could appears to have finally met its match. A scandal has grounded Israel’s Skyhawk fleet – and is about to lead to its replacement…


Full story
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Israels-Skyhawk-Scandal-05105/#more-5105
 
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