A special paint job for a special fighter. A US Air Force (USAF) maintenance group has unveiled an F-16D Fighting Falcon with a special paint scheme. The colors, however, are no coincidence: the jet was the first US F-16 to shoot down an enemy plane in combat.
The aircraft registration number 90-778, an F-16D Block 42, was painted by 12 servicemen from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, who specialize in corrosion control. The desert scheme pays homage to the takedown carried out with the aircraft, nicknamed the MiG Killer, and an experimental paint job applied to another F-16.
On December 27, 1992, during Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, the F-16 778 was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Gary 'Nordo' North. North and three other F-16s from the 33rd Fighter Squadron went on a patrol, taking off from Dhahran Air Base in Saudi Arabia. At one point, an Iraqi MiG-25 Foxbat entered the “No Fly Zone”, immediately becoming a hostile aircraft.
North coordinated a formation so that the four F-16s would not let the MiG-25 escape back to their country, forcing combat. At the same time as he was requesting permission to engage the MiG, he was asking his wingman to employ the electronic jamming systems.
“Finally he heard 'bandit-bandit-bandit, cleared to kill' on his headphones", 1st Lieutenant James Mobbley, officer of the 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, responsible for painting the plane.
That was the authorization North needed. About 5,5 km from the MiG-25, it fired a radar-guided missile AIM-120 AMRAAM, shooting down the Iraqi fighter.
The quick engagement went down in history, marking not only the first kill of a US F-16, but also the first using the AIM-120, the missile most used by NATO air forces and other US-aligned countries. But beyond the kill, the desert camouflage paint job is also a tribute to another F-16C.
Sergeant Michael Cichonsky, mechanic of F-35 together with the 56th Maintenance Squadron explains that the fictional design “was inspired by the desert camouflage uniform used during the first Gulf War and a similar experimental camouflage that was tested at the time”
“There are few photos of the test scheme, as it was hand-painted with latex paint and only lasted a week before it was removed. With this design, we not only pay homage to the history of General Gary North and 0778, but allow us to reimagine if this paint scheme had been selected for use during Operation Southern Watch.”
As noted by the The Aviationist, the experimental desert camouflage made it difficult to spot the jet, increasing the risk of air collisions. Furthermore, it was similar to the livery used by the Israeli Air Force's F-16s. For these reasons, it was quickly discarded.
