picture 178898

While NATO was relatively late with delivering Lockheed F-104G Starfighters to Greece, by 1964, the THK already had two units operating this – at the time – brand-new type: 141 and 144 Filo, both of which were based at Mürted AB. Nominally assigned to the 1st Tactical Air Force and subjected to the control of NATO, these had nuclear strike as their primary role, but the THK used them for air defence purposes, also armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. All were left in bare metal overall but had their wings painted in white and wore no other insignia but national markings, the ‘last five’ of their FY serials on the fin (62-12623 in this case) and buzz-numbers prefixed by FG. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)