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E-2C Hawkeye. Israel used to have 4 of those
operational, but in the mid '90s all of them were retired. I'm not aware
of any public announcements by the Israely military, but taking into
account that IAI and Elta build phased array based AEW aircraft for
Chileans and Chinese, I think there's a good chance that the poor old
Hawkeyes were retired in favor of some newer system... (Hatzerim
'95). |
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E-2C Hawkeye. One curious thing about Hawkeyes in
IDF/IAF is that when they were first received by IAF, during overflights
of Sinai peninsula, the crews would routinely identify truck columns as
aircraft flying at low level. The reason was, that originally Hawkeye was
designed quite a while ago, and then only for overwater use - the signal
processing equipment was quite limited. However, after several upgrades,
during '82 Peace of Galelly operation, Hawkeye prooved to be a reliable
AEW system, especially considering the fact that the combat zone was
rather hilly (not to say mountainous). (Hatzerim '95). |
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E-2C Hawkeye. (Hatzerim '95). |
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F-16A Fighting Falcon. (Hatzerim
'95). |
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F-16A (Hatzerim '95). |
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F-16A (Hatzerim '95). |
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Kurnass-2000 (Israely F-4 upgrade). Inner pylon
carrying a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinders can be clearly seen. (Hatzerim
'95). |
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Kurnass-2000 inner pylon detail : Unlike the
complicated twin launchers used by Soviet aviation (pylon mounts a spacer
bar, which in turn mounts a paired launcher rails) which render the pylon
useless, Israelis went a simpler way - the rails are simply bolted onto
the pylon, leaving enough clearance to carry ordnance on the pylon itself.
When I've seen this the first time I laughed my ass off! :-) (Hatzerim
'95). |
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Kurnass-2000 front left AIM-7 Sparrow well. A
bomb rack was formed in the well, which normally carries a laser guidance
pod. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Kfir-C2 (an Israely Mirage-5/Nesher spin-off). A
Nesher (see below) with the engine replaced by american GE-J-79 (same as
used in F-4), and a completely redesigned avionics. Note the black/yellow
triangle on the tail - since during the Yom Kippur war both sides were
using Mirages (many versions of Mirage-III, Mirage-5, Nesher, Kfir),
Israelis have had theirs covered with bright yellow triangles on the tail
and wings, to facilitate easy identification during air-combat - those
were still days of visual identification... :-) (Hatzerim
'95). |
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Kfir-C7. A more advanced version of Kfir,
mounting larger fixed canards on the air intakes, and sporting newer
avionics. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Kfir-C7 with a FFAR loadout. During the last
phase of their carrer in IDF/IAF they were used for ground attack mostly
(air defence role was taken up by F-15s). (Hatzerim '95). |
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Kfir-C7. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Kurnass-2000. A ground attack modification of
F-4, upgrades carried out by IAI. Includes complete replacement of
avionics - including installation of Norden SAR/MTI radar originally
designed for of A-12/A-6F, and an in-flight refueling probe. Large parts
of the avionics suite used were originally designed for Lavi (see below) (Hatzerim
'95). |
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Kurnass-2000. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Lavi. An original IAI design. The general
configuration of the fuselage reminds of F-16, but instead of the
conventional wing-tail design, a tailless delta was used. It is a great
shame this aircraft never went into series production - it would have been
the Skyhawk of the 90s... Small, agile, carrying a heavy punch (including
30mm cannons), and sporting the newest and the best in avionics design
(radar, wide angle HUD, DASH helmets, laser-ring gyros, etc... Damn
politics! (Hatzerim '95). |
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Lavi. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Lavi. Note the two fins under the rear fuselage,
and remaining pieces of plumbing that used to be an inflight refueling
probe. (Hatzerim '95). |
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He-he. :-) A MiG-21. Brought in by a defecting
arab. Already by the time it landed in Israel it wasn't the newest model
out, but it gave a couple of answers to questions that IAF and USAF were
very anxious to ask. Note the number "007" on the nose - Israeli
touch - to signify that the aircraft was obtained under some very
"special" conditions. Flown extensively by Israelis. BTW, the
guy standing near the aircraft is my dad. (Hatzerim '95). |
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He-he-he. :-) A MiG-23. Brought in by another
defecting arab. :-) (I've heard a couple of different variations of the
story, but most of them were plain rubbish or military indused
speculations.) No fancy numbers this time, just Blue Stars on wings and
intakes... Flown extensively by Israelis (and probably Americans too)
before being turned over to museum. (Hatzerim '95). |
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MiG-23. (Hatzerim '95). |
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MiG-23. (Hatzerim '95). |
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Nesher. An Israeli replica of Mirage-5 as is
(versus Kfir, which was severely redesigned). The aircraft has always
existed under the veil of secrecy (Israelis didn't quite BUY it from
French. Only 2 aircraft were delivered by Dassault, the rest were localy
produced WITHOUT licence. Once thing though - the original order for
something like 50 Mirage-5s was PAID for, but never delivered. So I guess
that covers it...) (Hatzerim '95). |
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Mirage-III. (Hatzerim '95). |