After the 1989
Soviet coup, and the resulting death of Mikhail Gorbachev crushed hopes
for an end to the Cold War, Britain found herself in need of additional
air defence hardware. Though useful in theory, the Sidewinder-armed Hawk
T.1A fleet were of little practical value outside of an actual war
situation, and with increasing demands on the Tornado F.3 fleet BAe
stepped forward offering to upgrade a number of low time Hunter airframes
for the RAF.
With the serving head of the RAF a former Hunter man the offer was jumped
at. The resulting Hunter F.15 was powered by an uprated dry version of the
Turbo Union RB.199 engine, delivering 11,400lb thrust, and had the Sea
Harrier FA.2's highly capable Sea Vixen radar. Other updates included a
frameless windshield, Martin-Baker MK.10 seat, updated cockpit displays
and avionics, an APU, improved braking, an inflight refueling probe,
increased internal fuel, and the ability to carry either a fuel tank or a
twin missile rail on the centerline.
The first of 48 Hunter F.15s entered service with RAF Germany in late
1994, with 29 Sqn at Gutersloh. RAF Leeming was the next base for the new
Hunter, with 74 Sqn converting from the Phantom F.3 in 1995. To mark the
return to Hunter operations XG204 (the new Hunters retained their original
registration numbers) was painted with a black tail and spine with the
famous Tiger Squadron markings.
As an interceptor the Hunter F.15 normally carried 2 AIM-9M Sidewinders
and 2 AIM-120B AMRAAM missiles along with either 100 or 230 gal external
fuel tanks. The four ADEN cannon were retained, though in normal operation
only two were loaded, with 150 rouds each.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The kit is
the excellent Revell 1/72 Hunter F.6. I started out with the
intention of building a "What If?" depicting an RAF Hunter
serving in the Vietnam war. After getting the fuselage together I
was digging through the spare parts box and noticed that a drop tank
from a Revell 1/48 Strike Eagle seemed 'right' to be a Hunter radome.
I cut the nose form the tank, mostly just by eyeballing with no
measuring, just to see how it would look, and was surprised when it fit
almost perfectly.
This changed
the build a lot, to a more modern Hunter development. Other
changes/additions to the kit were a trimmed down tailpipe, centerline
missile rails (a centerline hardpoint plumbed for fuel was looked at for
the RAF, and the Singapore Hunters were fitted with a centerline
hardpoint), a refueling probe, an M-B Mk.10 seat, and sanding away the
center paned framing from the windshield. The rest is pretty much
OOB.
Nick
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