J-4006 HISTORY
Switzerland has been a neutral country when it comes to military conflicts since 1815, but this does not mean that they are not going to defend themselves if they fall under attack. They have always maintained an efficient fleet of aircraft which could perform combat requirements at low level in the narrow valleys of the Swiss Alps. In 1946, the DeHavilland Vampire entered service as the first-line defence of Switzerland. Serving initially as a fighter, the Vampire developed into an excellent fighter-bomber aircraft. The Swiss had asked the RAF in Britain for a loan of four of the tiny little jet fighters for evaluation, and ended up ordering 75 production-built GA Mk.3s as well as building 100 Vampires under licence.
But, as had happened with the RAF, the Swiss Air Force soon found their Vampires outclassed by swept-wing jets with near supersonic performance. The Hawker Hunter was one of those jets. A Swiss competition took place in 1957 between the Hawker Hunter and, among other leading jet fighters of the era, the North American F-86 Sabre, as a possible Vampire replacement.
The Hunter emerged the clear winner in performance tests, ground handling, armament delivery tests, and also proved its worth by being able to take off and land from the Swiss highways that linked to Air Bases located deep within the mountains.
Switzerland ordered 100 Hunters in 1958 and placed three more orders in the 1970s for an additional 60 refurbished aircraft.
Hawker Hunter J-4006 at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum is an F-6 version, produced at Hawker's factory in Kingston-Upon-Thames in 1955. It was the second F-6 of the second batch built in full-scale manufacturing of that mark and was given the serial number XE527. It first flew on December 29, 1955 and was delivered to RAF No.19 Maintenance Unit on January 11, 1956 pending RAF Squadron allocation. It was sold, unused, to the Swiss and was delivered to the Swiss Air Force at Emmen in 1958. Switzerland designated their F-6s as Mk.58s, the first twelve aircraft of the initial order of 100 coming directly from RAF stocks in Maintenance Units. These were registered from J-4001 to J-4012. The rest of the Swiss order were all new built aircraft, registered J-4013 to J-4100. J-4006 was the sixth Hunter delivered to Switzerland, as per its registration.
As stated above, the first 12 Hunters were selected from various RAF Maintenance Units to provide the Swiss with an immediate small group of aircraft while the newly-built Hunters were being manufactured. These twelve Hunters were returned to Hawker at some point in 1957, prior to delivery to Switzerland, to be refitted and modified to the Swiss Mk.58 configuration.
The Swiss modified their Hunters somewhat better than their RAF counterparts, including enlarged ammunition containers, Swiss UHF and VHF radios, and were made to carry 100-gallon Napalm tanks as well as 37 two-inch rockets and / or 12 three-inch rockets stored in underwing rocket packs. They also put deflectors on the 30mm cannon blast tubes which channeled the gun blast away at 90-degrees to the fuselage, providing over 150 lbs of upward thrust from each gun to compensate for a gun-firing pitch down attitude.
In 1971, Hawker received a follow-up order for 30 Hunter FGA-9 aircraft, but with the ability to carry Aim-9 Sidewinder missiles. The Aim-9 Sidewinder is the original air-to-air missile, capable of being carried by practically any combat aircraft. Developed in 1949, the Sidewinder has an infra-red seeker missile homing head which produces a tone in the pilots headset, signifying that the missile has acquired a target.
This second order from Switzerland was designated as Mk.58A and were registered J-4101 to J-4130. This order was different from the first one in the fact that the aircraft were delivered in component form and were assembled by the Swiss.
Another order was placed in 1973 for an additional 22 aircraft. These also arrived in component form and were registered J-4131 to J-4152.
One last order was requested by the Swiss in 1974 for eight T-7 trainers to be supplied as Mk.68s. These were registered J-4201 to J-4208. The dual-seat Hunter Mk.68s were used for ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) aircraft by Fliegerstaffel 24.
When the Swiss Air Force began to receive the F-5E Tiger II, which assumed the interceptor role, the Hunters were assigned to the ground-attack role. The Hunters were brought in for a comprehensive upgrade of equipment and armament. Primarily, these were the Mk.58A version of the Hunter. Provisions were made for the operation of the Maverick air-to-ground missile on the outboard pylon as well as the installation of a bombing computer in the cockpit. The Maverick missile is designed for attacks against ground targets, but from a greater distance than conventional bombing weapons. The Maverick was designed after the failure of some guided missiles used by the United States Air Force in the Vietnam War. The Maverick has proven itself to be a successful weapon, as demonstrated to the world by A-10 Thunderbolts flying against ground targets in Operation Desert Storm.
Further Swiss modifications to the Hunter included adding chaff and flare dispensers to the armament package, and radar warning antennas to the ranging radar in the nose and on the bullet fairing located on the tail of the aircraft. The Swiss also adapted the Hunter to carry ALQ-171 Jammer Pods and BL-755 Cluster Bombs as well as a target towing pod for air-to-air gunnery practice.
Normally, all aircraft in the Swiss Air Force are pooled and will be assigned to the various units as required. Sometimes, one can use the Squadron Badges painted on the aircraft to identify a unit in which the aircraft once served, although not all the squadrons painted their badges on the aircraft. J-4006 carries the markings of FLST 20, so, at some point in its career, served with that squadron.
Swiss Hunters flew in the standard grey and green camouflage colours except for a few which had temporary paint schemes applied for squadron anniversaries and other events.