Vague Libyan Question

[jonesthetank]

Chaps,

While sorting through a box of books I found an old Osprey book "World's Air Forces" published in 1971.  I had completely forgotten I had it, so had a read through.  

Each country's air force is described, along with a short history.  The RAF has a long chapter, including mention of the new "Panavia 200 Panther MRCA", which made me wonder when did the Panther become the Tornado?

Under the Libyan section an arms deal with the UK is mentioned, which "included surface to air missiles was scrapped after a change of government in 1970".  

Does anyone have any info on this deal?  What had the UK agreed to sell to Libya?  The US had already supplied F5As and C130s in small numbers, the rest of which were embargoed.

Any ideas?  Hunters would be a logical choice, but what else?

Cheers

Mark

[Radish]

Sounds an interesting scenario.....and a future deal? Jaguars??

[monkeyhanger]

I seem to recall something about supplying Thunderbird SAMs.......

[Matt Wiser]

The Libyans ordered 16 C-130s, and paid $100 million for the deal. 8 were delivered and the other eight are still at Lockheed-Martin's Marietta, GA plant, baking in the Georgia sun. Now that Khadafy's mellowing in his old age, maybe the
birds will be released. (They've been preserved in a manner similar to aircraft at AMARC)

[Shasper]

Surprised we havent alotted them to active AF units by now (we did it w/t embargoed Paki F-16s)

Shas B)

[Son of Damian]

^^^
I thought they were still sitting at AMARC after we failed to sell/lease them to some one else.

If Khadafi doesn't get his last few Hercs it wouldn't surprise me if they went to Iraq or Afghanistan in the near future, maybe Canada will buy them out of force of habbit    

[jonesthetank]

Wooksta,

Cheers for that.  Lightnings seemed to ring a bell.

It does lead to a bigger WHIF question.  What if Ghaddafi's coup had failed, and King Idris had remained in power.  Given that Idris was very pro-western, what would Libya be using for equipment now, in place of all the Soviet kit it purchased?

Centurions, Chieftains, Challengers, M48s and M60s?

Jaguars, Harriers, F5Es, F16s?

Etc, etc.....

Mark

[Son of Damian]

^^^
How Pro-Western was Idris? Would he have helped out the Egyptians in '73?

IIRC the US had a base(s) in Libya before Ghaddafi took power, so would I guess arms wise it would be a lot like Egypt. Abrams, C-130s, F-4s, F-16s and or F-15/18s.  

[Shasper]

He was already in line for F-5A/Bs when Khaddafi couped, so I would guess F-5E/Fs, maybe F-20s, F-18s or F-16s from the US.

If he didnt have F-4s, then its unlikely he would get the Eagle.


Shas B)

[Howard of Effingham]

IIRC the US had a base(s) in Libya before Ghaddafi took power, so would I guess arms wise it would be a lot like Egypt. Abrams, C-130s, F-4s, F-16s and or F-15/18s.

afaik, the USAF base in libya was wheelus AB.  not sure what it was used for but
i think it was the base where the B-24 'the lady be good' flew from when the wreck
was discovered in the libyan desert in the 1950's. the B-24 had crashed late in
WW2.

trevor

[Iranian F-14A]

During the early days of the Cold War,I believe SAC had some B-47 Stratojets based at Wheelus AB,kinda like a foreward based strike deal.IIRC,the F-5s were part of a deal that let the USAF use Wheelus as a SAC base.I also think some B-52s flew from there as well,but weren't based there as the B-47s were.

[Shasper]

They had a good sized gunnery/missile range down there as well, I recall Chuck Yeager talking about his sqn having to shoot-down Matador or Mace ground launched cruise missiles that went off course.

Shas B)