The ANA in the `90: 1990 - 1997

The ANA Today

In the 1960s, obsolete aircraft were gradually disposed of and replaced by more modern equipment. Acquisitions comprised replacement P2V Neptunes, a trio of Grumman HU-16B Albatross amphibians, and eight Macchi MB.326GB jet trainers with attack capability to replace the surviving F9F-2 Panthers. The first three helicopters (Sikorsky S.55), to which numbers of Bell 47 were later added, were replaced by Sikorsky HSS-1 and Sud Alouette Ill, followed by four Sikorsky S.61D4 (the export version of the SH-3D in US Navy service). Two Westland Lynx Mk.23 were ordered in 1972 (though delivery did not in the event take place until 1978), and in early 1980 an order was placed for three late-model SA.330 Pumas. The US supplied Douglas A-40 Skyhawks were complemented by fourteen Dassault Super Etendard strike fighters, ordered in the first part of 1980, but not all delivered by early 1982, when many aircraft were lost in the Falklands conflict. See the appendix on page 285.