Cape Verde AIDC F-104T Starfighter

[comrade harps]

AIDC F-104T Starfighter
a/c 34, 201 Squadron, Cape Verde Air Force (CPAF)
5 July 1975, Rabil, Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde



The Cape Verde Air Force inherited a force of 26 F-104T Starfighters when it was established on 5 July 1975. Ex-Portuguese Air Force, they were used exclusively for national air defence roles and worked in cooperation with other UN assets to secure airspace in the Cape Verde Air Defence Identification Zone.




Forced to flee mainland Portugal by Red Revolutionaries in October 1950, Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar established Praia on Santiago Island in the colony of Cape Verde as the new capital of the Estado Novo, the Second Portuguese Republic. Salazar maintained his grip on the Portuguese Empire's African, Atlantic and Pacific colonies with UN assistance; the exceptions were the minuscule Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá, total population of 5 and occupied by Benin after a polite knock on the front door, and Goa, occupied by (the then) neutral India before lunchtime, both in 1961. After Salazar's death following a bathtub incident in 1970, central power from Praia rapidly diminished and the often messy processes of decolonisation became inevitable. The last Portuguese colonies to gain independence were its Atlantic territories, with the Macaronesia Federation (incorporating the Azore and Madeira archipelagos) established on 1 July 1975 and Cape Verde on the 5th. As they are not imperialists, the government of the Portuguese Socialist Republic has never claimed sovereignty over Portugal's overseas possessions.




The Portuguese Air Force (PAF) received its first F-104A Starfighters from Lockheed in 1959 and they were employed to defend airspace over Portuguese Macaronesia. The all-weather fighter-bomber F-104G Starfighter replaced the F-104As from 1962, the first batch of 40 being built by South Africa and subsequent deliveries coming from Argentina's FMA production line. The F-104G remained in the Macaronesia Air Defence Identification Zone until replaced by the F-104T in 1972. As part of the F-104T acquisition deal, the PAF sold most of its F-104G airframes to Taiwan, where they were rebuilt as Ts for the ROC Air Force.




Designed and built by AIDC in Taiwan, the F-104T featured the Hughes TARAN-18 fire control system matched to the Hughes AIM-4K Falcon SARH-guided missile for BVR engagements. The Falcons were supplemented by IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinders, in this case, AIM-9Js. Unlike the similar F-104S (produced in Singapore by SAI), which used the AIM-7E guided by the NASARR R-21G/H radar, the smaller electronics of the TARAN-18 enabled the retention of the internal M61 Vulcan cannon while armed with BVR missiles. The S and T model Starfighters also differed in their aerodynamics, the S having a pair of rear ventral fins not included on the T, which instead had modified wingtip tank fins (permanently installed and essentially upside down) and a pair of ventral "ski blade" aerials associated with Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) datalinks. Both the S and the T were powered by the J79-GE-19 turbojet.




Cape Verde inherited 37 F-104Ts from the PAF in 1975. Aircraft 34, depicted here, was built to a PAF contract by AIDC in 1972 and entered service with the PAF's 51 Squadron at Rabi the next year. It was photographed (as depicted here) in full CVAF colours during the organisation's inauguration ceremony at Rabi. The plane was destroyed on 14 May 1980, its pilot Captain Roberto Lopes being shot down by an R-73 (AA-11 Archer) missile fired by Flight Leader Karim El Ahmadi of the Moroccan Socialist Republic Air Force from his MiG-23ML Flogger G. Capt. Lopes ejected and survived the ordeal.



The F-104Ts were replaced by F-16A/B Block 15s from 1982, these being modernised to F-16AM/BM standards in the mid-1990s. They are now being replaced by the F-16V.

[Old Wombat]

Woh! Cool scheme!

[rickshaw]

Interesting.  So, Salazar slipped in the bathtub?  Sure he didn't fall backwards onto a salad fork welded by his trusted confidante and advisor?   

[NARSES2]

Really does look good in that scheme 

[Dizzyfugu]

Nice. The paint scheme reminds me of the US "Grape" aggressor scheme?

[zenrat]

Once again you have created a great camo scheme.

Academy kit?

[comrade harps]

Once again you have created a great camo scheme.

Academy kit?

Yes, the bulky, toy-like Academy kit, only $8 off the shelf at Narre Warren though. It needs a good camo to distract the eye. 

[comrade harps]

Nice. The paint scheme reminds me of the US "Grape" aggressor scheme?

I was thinking of the colourful reef-like schemes from Indonesia and Thailand, but the aggressor grape camo is similar.

It started out as a low contrast scheme, but then l added the Humbrol matt 109 and it completely lifted the scheme.

[PR19_Kit]

I rather like the idea of a Cape Verde Air Defence Identification Zone. And what better to police it than an updated Starfighter? 

[Rheged]

Nice model, and a totally unexpected but logical backstory.  Is there any more information on the "bathtub incident"  that caused the dictator's demise?  It sounds as though there is an interesting story there.

[Sport21ing]

Even in another part of the territory, Salazar still have it's bathtub incident...

[comrade harps]

Nice model, and a totally unexpected but logical backstory.  Is there any more information on the "bathtub incident"  that caused the dictator's demise?  It sounds as though there is an interesting story there.

It's based on a reference in his Wikipedia page (so it must be true): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_de_Oliveira_Salazar

[Glenn Gilbertson]

A believable story and  beautiful model!

[chrisonord]

That camouflage scheme looks marvellous   nicely done and excellent back story.  My British  foray into  North and central Africa  is going to be  called operation  Saladin 
Chris

[rickshaw]

Nice model, and a totally unexpected but logical backstory.  Is there any more information on the "bathtub incident"  that caused the dictator's demise?  It sounds as though there is an interesting story there.

It's based on a reference in his Wikipedia page (so it must be true): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%C3%B3nio_de_Oliveira_Salazar

From that article:

In 1968, Salazar suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on his right hemisphere.[142] Most sources maintain that it occurred when he fell from a chair in his summer house in the Fort of Saint Anthony of Barra. In February 2009, there were anonymous witnesses who admitted, after some investigation into Salazar's best-kept secrets, that he had fallen in a bath instead of from a chair.[100] After the incident, Salazar's life went on normally. Sixteen days later, Salazar admitted he felt sick and he was admitted to Hospital de São José two days later. Believing that the 79-year-old prime minister would die soon after the fall, President Américo Tomás dismissed Salazar and replaced him with Marcelo Caetano. Despite the injury, Salazar lived for a further two years. When he unexpectedly recovered lucidity, his intimates did not tell him he had been removed from power, instead allowing him to "rule" in privacy until his death in July 1970.[101]