Unexpected and welcome find – Nigerian FT-7NI Air Guard

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Air/1713454/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Air/1712651/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Airguard/1712568/L/&sid=d3e3c99255fcaef1dcd3ebac9b781854
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Airguard/1712489/L/

and a brand new and amazingly looking A109E Power

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Agusta-A-109E-Power/1712285/L/
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Agusta-A-109E-Power/1712284/L/

Nice, here’s two more:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Airguard/1705773/L/&sid=b9be3ac219ca74b30244fea847bcf87c
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Nigeria—Air/Chengdu-FT-7NI-Air/1706200/L/&sid=b9be3ac219ca74b30244fea847bcf87c

Any photos of the single seaters?

Unfortunately I have no pic’s but the document is the analysis of the Missile Combat Evaluation Trials. This document is still classified but for those in the know it is HQ/TS/7080/16/WEP. If you read the source from which tempestII got the pictures (ORAF’S) you can read more about it. There was no Omani connection other than perhaps a transfer of Rhodesian technology when a number of RhoAF personal joined the Omani AF.

ORAFs=Old Rhodesian Air Force Sods

Hehe… 😀

They were Sidewinder 9B’s and also South African V3’s ( Called Sidewinder 9J by the Rhodesians)together with South African HMS. All supplied by South Africa and fitted by TFDC.

What little I know about these early S-African missiles:

Based on the fact that the first variants of these missiles that appear to have seen any substantial degree of production was the V3B starting in 1979 and the fact that the missiles on that RhodAF Hunter depicted above are not V3A or V3B that narrows the possibilities. The missiles seen on the RhodAF Hunter depicted above could be a South African V1 or V2 or a US made Aim-9B. I won’t rule out that the Rhodesians may have gotten some V3As or even V3Bs but I haven’t seen one carried by a RhodAF Hunter yet. If anybody can post such a photo I’d be delighted.

From the top V3B, V3A, Aim-9B.

P.S. I wasn’t aware of the fact that the Rhodesians/Zimbabweans had two seat hunters until after 1979-80.

I would then look for as many turboprop aircraft as possible – they may not be glamorous, but they have then endurance and speed to deal with these. Having radar equipped fighters may not be the solution – spotting a terrain hugging light aircraft may not be easy.

I agree… and you are correct in that spotting terrain hugging light aircraft isn’t easy. One will quickly find one self needing some form of AEW asset. As I have pointed out before 🙂 tracking and intercepting light ground hugging (smuggler) aircraft has been done in S-America quite effectively for years now by a combination of small turboprop or jet trainers or COIN aircraft like the Tucano, Pucará, AT-37 and very basic AEW assets. Some S-American air forces have used US owned and operated aircraft for the AEW part, the Colombians for example operate their own US supplied C-26 metroliners fitted with an APG-66 radar and a FLIR pod to track drug smugglers and vector gun equipped trainers in to intercept them. As for ground defenses: heavy machine guns, possibly MANPADs and night vision goggles are also more likely yield success against these nuisance raiders than massive and expensive SAM batteries. Of course turboprop trainers don’t have the cool factor of a jet fighter but sending a F-7G after these Tamil aircraft (never mind a MiG-29) is like swatting flies with a sledgehammer.

Here is the reference on the K-13 armed MiG-17F:

10 May 1966, three North Vietnamese MiG-17s attack a SAR packet of two A-1Es Skyraiders and a HH-3C Jolly Green helicopter with two AA-2 Atolls IR missiles, near Yen Bai, about 85 miles northeast of Hanoi. One missile was fired at the HH-3 and one was fired at the Skyraiders, both missiles failed to track all the way to their intended targets. MiG driver must have been out of the Atoll’s envelope. Description: CPT Robert D. Furman, pilot of an HH-3, performed the deepest successful rescue into North Vietnam, to date, when he rescued a downed F-105 pilot, CPT Martin H. Mahot, 80 miles northwest of Hanoi (“MiGs Miss First Shots With Air-Air Missiles”, The Washington Post, May 12, 1966, p. A1 (NC); “Mekong Arms Ship destroyed”, The Times (London), May 12, 1966, p. 1 (NC); Neil Sheehan, “MiG’s Fire First Missiles, But They Miss U.S. Planes”, The New York Times, May 12, 1966, pp. A1 & A17; “Vietnam Communique”, Air Force Times, May 25, 1966, Vol. XXVI, No. 41, p. 4; “World Affairs”, “Vietnamese War”, Facts On File, Vol. XXVI, No. 1341, July 7-13, 1966, p. 249; “World Affairs”, “Vietnamese War”, Facts On File, Vol. XXVI, No. 1333, May 12-18, 1966, p. 169; “Industry Observer”, Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 20, 1966, p. 23; Jack Foisie, “Air, Navy Units Destroy Ship With Red Arms”, The Los Angeles Times, May 12, 1966, pp. A1 & A11; “MiGs Fire Missiles”, Aviation Week & Space Technology, May 16, 1966, p. 37).

That sounds interesting but I have learned take eyewitness accounts with a grain of salt. Especially if the sightings took place at high speeds while the eyewitness was being shot at. 😀 If it was really common practice to arm NVAF MiG-17/F-5 fighters with K-13 missiles then I would expect MiG-17/F-5 fighters packing K-13 missiles or at least K-13 pylons to feature very, very prominently in wartime NVAF photographs. They don’t, at least not in the material that is available to me. That doesn’t mean that NVAF MiG-17/F-5 fighters never carried the K-13. The NVAF converted several of it’s MiG-17/F-5 to carry bombs and rocket pods so it’s not unthinkable that they also upgraded some to carry the K-13 which wasn’t a particularly complex thing to do and the Vietnamese are resourceful people. In addition the NVAF may have recieved limited numbers of MiG-17 aircraft from the Soviets or Eastern European countries that had this capability already installed on delivery but these aircraft would have been comparatively few judgnign from available photographic material.