Tiger Squadrons

Tim Lamia~

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Contents Introduction 6

Forca Aerea Portuguese

United States Air Force United States Navy Royal Air Force

Ejercito del Air

8

Turk Hava Kuwetleri

34 46

E l l i i i Aeroporia Swiss Air Force

L'Armhe de 1'Air 48 Ahronautique Navale

92

Aeronautica Militare Italiano 94

33

Royal Navy - Fleet Air Arm

84

58

Force Ahrienne Belge/Belgische Luchtmacht 62

104

105 106

Royal Norwegian Air Force Koninklijke Luchtmacht

110

114

Canadian Armed Forces (Air) 116 Royal Australian Navy

128

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An official Tigmaub' member since 1468.the W3rd BS fell vtctim to 115 budgn cuts and was &sbandpd in 1990 Pea- AFB war dored and the hgmr may well have s e n the law of the393rd (Ttm inmtng)

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Whereit dstatted; thelgth TFSiso;sdikdwiththemiginal& e f r e t h g q ~aHgfffntemi~w~~in19~).sfin~muchin~at&AFUpper : w r d m Ddordshin, the qadmn is psrt of the 2 0 t h T P W d *opentea the F-IIIE Ship W D 2 dkplaysearlywhite tail mdes, now applied in bh& W y CJnd-smCol1.~mrl

An F-15D combatzapable tnincr of the 53rd TFS. United Sratc~Aiz Forcer Europe, m f i d a p p c h to itr h r c a t Bitburg mGamany. Apmi horn the m h h f u a l tank Thiskin-stick Fagleis i n c h w&uratiun -oria I Them's a Sidewinder AAM up h e somewhere (Chndtm Gmvd, VDL)

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Positioned in front of Bitburg's control tower, an F-15A Eagle air superiority fighterof the 53rd TFS stands ready. A long-time partidpant at annual Tiger Meets, the squadron operated the F-105 Thunderchef, F-4D and F-4E Phantom 11s before re-equipping with theMcDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle in 1977. The 53rd TFS is one of four US Air Force air defence squadrons permanently based h Europe

Royal Air P-

Unhlre many of their NATO ~mbxpmb,ECIn2 lus not wqletely tigershiped any of thar &m e they operated the SuperM d r e . The nearest the rmit have mme (roIsr)ho adoo Muage F 1 in suhc o h w S which appeared at the I979 Ti@ Meet aosecmnination afthis $ a t a d meal that membw ofNo 4.39 Sqh Cmdau b d h s have Wf visited t h s Mmge mth a pant hmh (Pad W

UP h e the deudr m its nehualelawt the deck &ce F I loah ~~~-~ VCN in& *fighter,B&-in inrnament ir a pair of 30 mm DEPA-on (each ~ i & I35 rounds of u s d y high-explosive zmm-, snd t kmissile& is typically two wingtip MatraRWO Msgici&d-@ded M M s , d o r h v o Maiktr.? m p 5~ 3 O F r a d u W &AM. The bolt-on @@d r d k k probe is d y fitted when a mission q u i r e s tanker mppmt.If youle a head for figuree. Youmightme ton* that theembmisaSNECMAAter9LSOtUrboidwith ama&um(afkrburr(er) thrwt ofi5673lb i b a t l w e ~ ~lthoughnotin the samadsssartheF-I&orMna~e2oOD theFliseolbledtahne&&~ gmund ron of lust over 2 ~ 0 f idimblng . to an &olffi.000"ft and leadung speds m excess of Mach 2 (SIKPA.AIR)

and opraks fmm the sircrsff-&ier C k m as q d . The unit badge fc-ahuea m horn-not @e a tiger, but m e o n e b v a e d thnt the h e d ~ n b ofhthe wurhia i l indeed a (iuu.T h e nst is h o w Wrap-d

Rather more mundane,FA 72 sits on the Gmbriu&ght ght dths 1986 Tlger Meat wearing the standard Belgrw m forcecam&errhame (indeed theaLncptwdF-Ibwlour&zix) At b t theintakeunmaddradsnh of& K%dm eanOd/WL)

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Two Fighting F a l w Imm the 3M SmaEk.1 B$gMAjrFotce, &about to drpart Imm t h e hawe b a it~Kleine %el. The wingman lo& MFOSS the l e a k on hir nght and with a nod of &ation the bnJresu.relead in u n m ( d y ) , followed by a blast of powerimm the F-16'. Patt k WhihxqFlOO twboian. The blue6nmmrLingi~thatofthe10th Pighkrhber Wing,d which the 3Ist is s component squadmn [-fa* &st attended a Tigg. Meet in 1962,the squadron ha. beenaregularpartidpmt in t i i events e m since

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The Lu&mfft hnr pdadualh, applied s highly effective 'Uzard'cmouAsgc nchem lo rtl Brrt ofAlpha Jetattack -aft (Chndim Gnurdl Y D L l

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43 cekbrated itr 25th smuvmsa~pon I0Nwanber 1981 tn traditional h f h @ k ? x ~ none . of the&* Alpha JaS(40 44) m ~ l i v d a cmmemnbve EO~OUI Bein@(he WU$I debration bther than the there -'t r trace of a hgo shzpmpeanphere on the &u&(E

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The G.91T two-seat hainer retains the same Orpheus turbojet as fitted to the single-seat Gina. Derived kom the North American P-86 Sabre, the G.91 was developed as a direct result ofa joint NATO requirement foi a light hghter and tactical support aircraftinrued in 1953. So who ssid the Zurofightef was a new ideal (Frank VilJer)

This Vought A-7P Corsai ir belongs to 304 Lqwdra; judging by the badge on the fire 304 is at least an'unoffidal'tiger squadron However, the word is that when theG.91~are finally withdrawn from service, thisunit may well assume the role of being Portugal'so f f i d tiger squadron. I wonder if we will see a tiger-striped Corsair? (hadVlsrrr)

Outride 21' Gruppa's officers, an F-I046strikes a suborbital pore wearing the colour scheme introduced at the 1988Tier Meet (GimppeFmn')

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Turk Hava Kuwetleri

The T h h &force also operates n krgp B e t af F-I&, hhding Smsdels A k d t w72ofthe19zFzb uana-LufkwfFFIMG, asrevealedbythe gnen/%~ys p k b ramaulbge a d day& wfngfip t s h The Twks hsve yet to a& thm fBB 8hared involvemwt m ttner r H e s and 192%am r&reen at other NATO arbbases, which u "a great &me, e l p a d y rf you happen tu be a S&&tn

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Once upon tima,the vaatamlvdy ofNAT0's &dnt-Lne@krhher ~q& wme equcpprd w ~ €the b Loekheed F - % f f iShrfighta. Consequently, mom h a httle space on the BBT Mept ramp was v ~ e bydm e w St&$tershom d&mat rnVnmw alUIov&h the F-I04 w dowly hdq into hstm M less than three Hger q d m m wMhnued t o o w e the type m 1991 Bmed st l\r-one a u c h d l s 3 3 5 Mfaof the G ~ ~ P o I E ~ . DespIk hawngpned the Hger h a t m t y in19rL the tltoltnrt k - l y atknded mual TIger M&. But 435 Mn. hsw occagiody displayed smne hser spmt check art the m y tales under the cm&~e~of ttdr TF-~Q$G

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Swiss Air Force

Formed in 1949, No 336 had the honour ofbeing the first Norwegian squadron to become operational with jet aircraft (de Havilland Vampires). Later equipment included the F-846Thunderjet and F-86 Sabre. This vnit also had the distinction of owratineu the air force's one-and-onlv serobatic team. 'The FI)tng :okerr', m s l ~ lhirh l ~ the r d 6 a d 1Lrc.r r l v 1 5 O ~ r drnerqoaJruns f b-jH~ornbat:ramerr rharer chramp wlrh 1 Ld&n~cF-;F Phan!om I I K ~ I

Anothcrvlewof~~~~aftMmberWI,~~hmcasrth~tkhpdh m w o w tar& in northem Nmway The rep"& d md m scheme has nncg b m replsced h$ gloss Wtgreys (&I Simonwn)

CanadianArmed forces Ut*~-U-u-~~~.,v"ulh.d.h.dacn ~*c-m*.~ribbu4bu4bu4bu4bu4bu4 ~m*"iauoloxr~.4-p,~-~,

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Msedempht I f w o a ~ b l s a q w ~ W R t ~ ~ a ~ t e r t o U I ~ M E that ether tiger pi& have ln.opprhmty toexp&m &rent typn of l u d (ChnrBatmItl

h4ay 11990,andNo 439 Sqnhe up m h n t of three CE-18s m happer times before the Tlgen deployed to the Gultdunng the Iraq-Kuwart cnns Uocl

Ship 188922 is one of 24 CF~I8Bcombat-capabletrainers delivered to the Canadian ArrnedForcer.Both the CF-18A and the B model differ indetail from the rtandardFIA-I8 Hornet operated by the USNsvy andMarineCorps; a spotlight is mounted in the forward fuselage in order to visually identiiy airmatt at night, and a runway instrument landing system is fitted in place of its carrier equivalent Uens Sihmidt~e")

Baden Sollingen no longer e r h w to the distinctive wail of theff-I04 Starfighter's GenedElechidOrenda 179 turbojet,but them's atill an ahnosohare of &ion for thie f m a i d . Ship 104815 is a 'standnrd' v - I ~ ~ G-u,s the w a n d forward fuselage ECMfamgr retrofittedto moot of +heStarfinhters whch m e d mth the 1st C a d a n Air Grow The overall green patnrwork on this aircrah was aometh~ngd a n lntmim meawe. IPDMIW tho yrarr brhvccn the early natural metal schemes and the hnal dirruphve

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Royal Australian Navy

One ofthe Ism-kown tiger squadrons, the &busten of the RDyd Australian Navy's VS-816only e v e r a t W one Tiger Meet. the 1977went at RAF GreenhrmCommon in Batshire VS-816 oparated Gmmma & T fmmNASNom and weredeployedon the a u d e a n w W MrIbwme. The T r a h ad the Mehaurn are hstory now (via k k Vke)

HIGH-PROFILE COMBAT AIRCRAFT SQUADRONS I N TIGER MARKINOS

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Combat Aircraft titlw from Osprey Aerorpace TOMCATSm m R DevMf&mwn&R~FDorr

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~ D u c h a i e a ~ & ~ ~ H u u t s s NAw ATTACK Spada Swcootenrsl Whalw RonB J ~ m Y I o n & ~ B L e w i s ~ M C W a A R o S GmwsGmwsappars&~

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Soledhbuwrs for the USA