Angola's Su-27s and Portuguese Air Force ( to the editor)

Hi all

I don’t recall seeing it reported either on AFM or sister magazines but some 3 weeks ago, while watching the evening news, I came across a report on the escalating combats ongoing in Angola. This time they were reporting on a major ofensive by government troops against UNITA’s guerrilla forces. To my unbelief, backing up a column of dusty old BMP-1 armoured personel carriers was !! a Su-27 !! . Although it was relatively short, the footage clearly shown a very dense lizzard pattern in sand and olive tones. Not an usual color scheme !

By the way, regarding the European air forces roundup in August issue, Portuguese AF numbers were incorrect. If the ed reads this (I hope it does) then he should correct this figures:
– 16 TB-30B Epsilons (from 18 delivered – never 20 – 2 were lost and another made a crash landing (dec 96 issue) but was soon brought back to service.

– 6 P-3P Orions FAP operates 5 examples and keeps another in reserve (rotating when needed).

– 40? Alpha Jet’s – From the 50 received, 5-10 were bought as spare part supplies. From the remaining, many are tought to have followed the lead. FAP is considering replacing a squadron with attack helos so that their A/C could sustain the training fleet for some more years.

– The Portuguese Navy EHM operates 3 new built and 2 refurbished ex-RN Mk3 Super Lynx examples. It want’s to buy another 3 to have a fleet of 4 flights of 3 helos ( 3 to each frigate and a training flight) and not a further 8 helos as reported.

Hope this was useful

Andre Carvalho
etasc@ua.pt