"Just a nice Picture ...!"

Still going strong! Two Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentine Air Force) McDonnell Douglas A-4AR Fightinghawks, serials C-911 and C-927, displaying their tailhooks.

According to the Scramble database the FAA has only eight operational (O)A-4ARs in its inventory at this moment. Out of 36 former USMC Skyhawks delivered during the nineties, the handfull Fightinghawks are operated by Grupo Aéreo 5 de Caza (G5C) at Villa Reynolds Air Base.

In 1994, the US offered to modernise 36 former USMC A-4M Skyhawks in a USD 282 million deal that would be carried out by Lockheed Martin and included the privatisation of the Fabrica Militar de Aviones (Military Aircraft Factory - FMA), which was renamed Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina SA (LMAASA) afterward. In 2010, LMAASA reverted to the Argentine government as Fabrica Argentina de Aviones (FADEA).

Argentine Air Force technicians chose 32 A-4M and 4 TA-4F Skyhawks from the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson (AZ) to upgrade.

The fighters received serials C-901 to C-936. The first group arrived in Argentina on 18 December 1997 and the first "Argentine" A-4AR was rolled out on 3 August 1998 at Cordoba. The last one, C-936, was delivered to the FAA in March 2000. Two aircraft, a single seat and a dual seat, remained for some time in the US for weapons certification.

In January 2016, Argentine Minister of Defence Julio Martinez confirmed that all A-4AR Fightinghawks were grounded. Originally this was due to the expiry of the explosive cartridges in their ejection seats, but later it became apparent that there were additional problems.

Photo by Valen Aviation