Brazillian Navy EA-7N vs NarcoReds

[comrade harps]

Background
The trouble that lead to the so-called Columbian Crisis of 1990 began when the populist leftist Alvaro Diaz was elected President in 1986. President Diaz campaigned on a pledge to bring peace to the nation, torn as it was by war with the revolutionary Marxist FARC. In 1986, Diaz and the FARC signed a peace agreement, entering an era of "normalisation" as the FARC was brought in from the cold. In the same year, Diaz also withdrew Colombia from the United Nations. During this time, FARC leaders were granted legal immunity and the government turned a blind eye to its considerable narotics related acitvities.

In the 1990 Congressional elections, Preseident Diaz's Alternative Democrative Pole Party failed to gain an absolute majority and entered into a colatition with the FARC, resulting in several FARC's leaders taking positions in the national Council of Ministers. Inivitably, this was not taken well, neither in the UN nor amaong the Columbia's right and anti-Communist movements. At the UN, US President Jesse Ventura famously commented that "the NarcoReds have taken over Columbia."



15 March, 1990: Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport
As night fell, the nearby city of Barranquilla was in turmoil, as pro-government loyalist forces battled anti-government rebels. Around 500 foriegn civilians were at the Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport, being airlifted out of the country by chartered civilain airliners and cargo transports. Many more were at stranded by the fighting, unable to gain safe passage to the airport.

At around 19:30 local time, mortar and gun fire raked across the field, halting all air traffic. The Airport was in the possession of loyalist troops, but muniteering rebels who had been attacked by gun and rocket armed UH-1H helicopters operatoring from there were now trying to close it down. Standing off the coast, the Rio Group's Task Force Boliva (acting on UN orders) was ready for action. Amongs the ships in the the Task Force were a Mexican helicopter assault vessel with Mexican Marines aboard, an Argentine carrier with F-4S and E-2C aircraft and the Brazillian Navy's Sao Paulo aircraft carrier, with A-7M, OA- and EA-7N Corsair IIs and EKS-3As. It would be the job of 4 Corsairs (2 A-7Ms, 1 OA-7N and 1 EA-7N) forming a SCATTER (Strike Coordination, ATTack and Electronic Response) Force to provide the Mexican choppers with shot-gun escort in and out Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport to take control of the situation.



At around 01.25 hours local, the crew of EA-7N 372 crossed the beach and were immediately in action, jamming an old Hawk SAM battery with the ALQ-99XP pod whilst launching an ALARM at a Crotale SAM unit. Minutes laters, they were striking a loyalist Vulcan cannon armed APC with an AGM-65E buddy lased by the OA-7N's Pave Tack pod. The A-7Ms were also getting in on the action, taking out a loyalist truck and a rebel mortar position with a GBU-12s.

As the helicopters approached, the EA-7M crew jammed and laid down a corridor of chaff as a defence against triple A.

Landing at the airport, the Mexicans were welcomed by the loyalist commander, whose troops gave every assistance in loading the civillians onto the choppers. He also personally called off the air defence from taking any further action. With the rebel having also taken the hint, the remainder of the evacuation mission proceeded calmly. By day break, the airport was again open for civillian air traffic and all foriegnors who wanted to leave were evacuated safely over the next two days.




Operation Restore Freedom
Officially, the UN's campaign to topple the democratically elected NarcoReds began on the 23rd March, 1990. Acting in direct support of the rebels with airpower and special forces, Diaz's government was toppled on the 1st May.


EA-7N 372 equipped with: 2 x ALARM on horizontal ejector racks, ALQ-99XP, LANA Flir, 2 x MAA-1A Piranha 1 IR guided AAMs, drop tank, AGM-65E Maverick, Phillips Canada Purple Haze bulk chaff dispenser

[Maverick]

Wicked stuff Comrade,

Nifty backstory and killer model to boot.  What's the base kit?

I had ideas of a strike configured twin holer A-7, but it was to be a US ANG ship.

Regards,

Mav

[Ian the Kiwi Herder]

Looks like the new Hobbyboss TA-7C to me..... really cool idea, kind of a "Prowler Lite" vibe going on.

Ian

[Captain Canada]

Nice one, Comrade ! A nice little read to enjot during my lunch, with a beautiful kit to go with it. Thanks !

[sotoolslinger]

Comrade , that is a beautiful aircraft excellent build and cool backstory.   Your photos are nifty too.

[Rafael]

Comrade, that's a very sexy bird.

I find the overall grey color doesn't look boring, but on the contrary makes the plane look very businesslike. And the loadout.......

That backstory........do you happen to live in the vicinity of your scenario?. I mean, that struck very close to home, and I found it very frighteningly credible. More than a nice backstory, food for thought for us in the thick of it.....

Rafa

[comrade harps]

Thanks again for the kiond words, felllow Whiffers.

Yes, the kit is the 1:72nd scale Hobby Boss TA-7C. I've been waiting for a Corasir II twin stick for ages, and with the A-7K's dorsal spine, it just had to have it. As I've got a land based A-7 single seater in the collection already, this one had to be naval.

I find too that a model in painted with an overall monochrome pallet with matching decals can be rather bold and striking and not all all drab and boring. This was always going to be a grey machine.

As for the scenario, well I've been working on that idea for quite a while. I have more planes built for this scenario (I'll add some photos later maybe). I live in Frankston, Australia and I've never been anywhere near Colombia, but this kind of story does seem frighteningly possible. Thankyou for the credit of kind of getting it right. A little research and some imagination, that's all.

Oh, and in listing the loadout I forgot to mention the chin mounted LST/SCAM. The Pave Penny that came with the kit has been donated to a Maverick armed A-37C Piglet (son of Warhog), but that's another story.

The TA-7C begs for a night interdictor, SEAD or FAC kind of special mission job. It can carry heaps and A-7s routinely flew with assymetric loads, so it's a natural whiffer.

Thanks again for the opportunity and support to share.

[John Howling Mouse]

Love this as a two-seater and you've made it very believable!  Is that HUD for the RIO for "real" or was that a Whif on your part?  Love it!

[comrade harps]

The clear panel in front of the rear seat is as came with the kit. I'm not sure if it's a big HUD or if it's meant to be a blast shield in case the front seat ejects first or the canaopy blows off, but yeah, it's a wopper. I havent researched it, just popped it on.

[anthonyp]

Oooh, me likey!  Needs Brazillian roundels, though! (Yes, I know they're rarer than tits on a bull, but I'm picky when it comes to Brazil.  I don't know why, I just am!)

I do like the Prowler-lite feel you have going on with this thing!   

[comrade harps]

Roundels?

What If the Brazillian Navy went so low-viz and minimalist (which they appear to have, judging by the look of this bird) that they ditched the roundels and just went for the anchor, like the Argentine Navy? I would have used gery anchors if I had them. I do have the Brazillian Navy roundels, from the Zotz World Roundels collection where the anchors also come from (the South American edition arrived in the mail just a few days ago, the rest of the model completed a couple of weeks ago), but, well, they were too much colour.  The Zotz sheets include some black roundels which could have worked, but the aesthetic here is both monochrome and austere, with a Navy that is clearly assertive, so just the anchors.

Black anchors on grey overall works works for me.

[anthonyp]

Heh, I see where you're going.  I was just saying it'd look neat (in a splash of color sorta way), like the old F-3 I did a while back:



Personal preference is all.  Again, nice job!

[GTX]

I live in Frankston, Australia

Well, how about that - I didn't know you were another Aussie!!!  Nice model.

Regards,

Greg

[comrade harps]

Sorry anthonyp, I was a bit too defensive there. Bad comrade.

Nice Demon  - I see what you mean.

Take two.

_______________________________________________________________________________
The following are extracts from The Cult of the Black Anchor, an article by arts commentator and journalist Vicente Feola,published in Brazilian Design Quarterly, Vol.5 No. 2, 1996:

On Armed Forces Day 1985, Admiral Júlio César da Silva officially opened the shrine  to the Brazilian Navy's fallen in the 1950-1980 campaigns against the Communism. At the heart of the memorial is a sculpture by the Rio based artist and creative consultant, Jose Vicente de Alvarenga. It depicts the figure of a sailor as if in blurred motion and calling others to follow, set against an anchor with inter-twined rope, stylised in black metal.

The anchor and rope is central to the memorial, like a heraldic broadsword or a rampant lion in a medieval coat of arms.
Whilst to the teary public at the unveiling this scene represented the past, to the Navy it unified recent history with its future. The black anchor and rope, long part of the Navy's iconography, was from that moment on its dominant symbol, part of a total re-branding of the Brazilian Navy.
Appointed Navy Chief of Staff in 1982, Admiral da Silva had the difficult task of renewing the Navy in a time of shrinking budgets and public withdrawal from military concerns. He reduced the size of the "legacy fleet" and slashed personnel numbers in a "save and modernise" program, at the same time giving the Navy a fresh purpose and image.

Admiral da Silva's mission was to he transform the Navy into a "leaner and meaner" force, ready to meet "new and future challenges", phrases reflected in the striking, more assertive appearance of the "New Navy's" visual appearance.

... The first aircraft to feel the presence of the Navy's new design palette was the A-7 Corsair II. As the aircraft were upgraded to Corsair 2000 standard from 1985, they emerged with different camouflage and markings.  Gone were the aircraft's insignia white undersides, replaced by overall gull grey. Also removed were all vestiges of colour, with stencils now in white and reduced to a minimum, while the yellow, green and blue roundels and fin flash carried on Navy aircraft since 1972 were also absent.
 
At the official launch of the new camouflage in 1987, by then being applied to all the Navy's aviation assets, Admiral da Silva said that the new look was "symbolic the New Navy... a Navy that is bold, assertive and forward looking." Roundels and fin flashes, he explained, "belong to air forces... the anchor is unequivocally Navy."

Colour, it seemed, was Air Force, and therefore to be denied. The New Navy was henceforth monochrome.

It must be remembered that the Navy had been deprived of owning  fixed winged aircraft in 1923, when Naval aviators took part in an abortive coup. From 1953 the Navy had submitted to the humiliation of operating Air Force owned and marked fighters from Navy owned aircraft carriers. This situation remained until 1972, when the under-resourced carrier aviation wing was finally transferred to the Navy. 

With the acquisition of fixed wing planes, the Navy applied newly designed roundels and fin flashes over the Air Force's own s markings, whilst also adding the Navy's traditional the black anchor symbol over the white anchor used by the Air Force's carrier force.

For Admiral da Silva and his style consultant Jose Vicente de Alvarenga, the Navy's roundel and fin flash represented a step back, a make-shift  paint over and an attempt to ape the Air Force's own look. By contrast, the black anchor symbolised a re-assertive Navy.

.... The black anchor and rope symbol has come to dominate the iconography of the Brazilian Navy. It appears on the sides of ships and planes, on letterheads, campaign ribbons and recruitment posters and, against a gull grey background, is the only thing that appears on the new Navy Ensign, adopted in 2001 amid great controversy and resistance.

One Navy sailor joked to the author that he now knew what it was like to live in the Socialist Union,  except that  in the Brazilian Navy "it isn't red starts everywhere, but black anchors ."

[comrade harps]

adopted in 2001

should be 1995.

Oops.