ST Aerospace A-4SU Super Skyhawk
| A-4SU Super Skyhawk | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| RSAF A-4SU Super Skyhawk taking off from RTAFB Korat during Exercise COPE TIGER '02. | |
| Role | Fighter-bomber, Advanced jet trainer |
| Manufacturer |
Douglas Aircraft Company Lockheed Aircraft Services Singapore Aircraft Industries (SAI, now ST Aerospace) |
| First flight | 19 September 1986 |
| Introduction | 1989 |
| Status | Training as of 2011 |
| Primary user | Republic of Singapore Air Force |
| Number built | ~150 |
| Developed from | Douglas A-4 Skyhawk |
The ST Aerospace A-4SU Super Skyhawk is a major upgrade project of the Douglas A-4S Skyhawk attack aircraft undertaken by Singapore Aircraft Industries (SAI, now ST Aerospace) in the 1980s. It was used exclusively by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), serving in the fighter-bomber role from 1989 until retirement from front line service in 2005. Since mid-1999, the A-4SU took on the additional role of being the designated Advanced jet trainer (AJT) aircraft for the RSAF's AJT training program/detachment in Cazaux, France.
Starting in 1973, the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) began to acquire Douglas A-4 Skyhawks. The first batch of over 50 airframes (ex-US Navy A-4Bs) was ordered and was subsequently requisitioned from the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center (MASDC) at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona which was released to the Lockheed Aircraft Service (LAS) Company at Ontario, California and its subsidiary Lockheed Aircraft Service Singapore (LASS) at Seletar Airfield, Singapore for a major overhaul and refurbishment.
These aircraft would later emerge as the A-4S single-seater (44 airframes) and the TA-4S two-seat trainer (three airframes), all having more than 100 changes incorporated (these included a slightly longer nose to house a new avionics package, five stores hardpoints instead of the usual three, a saddle style Automatic Direction Finder dorsal hump, cockpit armour plating, spoilers, a cranked refueling probe, AIM-9 Sidewinder capability, a brake parachute housing below the jetpipe into the standard A-4B airframes. As with the Israeli A-4Hs which were armed with a pair of 30 mm DEFA cannons, these were similarly armed with the 30 mm (1.18 in) ADEN cannons in place of the original 20 mm Colt Mk 12 cannons. A later order of four two-seat trainer airframes was placed in 1976, and these joined the RSAF in 1977.
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