A-4M Skyhawk BuNo 158413 of VF-126, Naval Air Station

One of the very last Skyhawks assigned to US Navy adversary unit VF-126 ‘Bandits’, this aircraft had initially been delivered to the US Marine Corps in 1976. Issued new to VMA-211 ‘Wake Island Avengers’ at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, in California, the aircraft served with the unit until early 1983, when it was transferred to Reserve-manned VMA-322 ‘Gamecocks’, based at Naval Air Station (NAS) South Weymouth, Massachusetts. This squadron was eventually disestablished on 27 June 1992, and a number of its A-4Ms (including BuNo 158413) were passed on to VF-126 at NAS Miramar – the ‘Bandits’ received six jets, and the co-located Naval Fighter Weapons School (Topgun) eight. These aircraft served with VF-126 alongside a motley collection of A-4E/Fs and TA-4F/Js until the ‘Bandits’ were disestablished on 1 April 1994.

BuNo 158413 was then placed in storage within the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Later that same year it was one of 36 surplus A-4Ms sold to the Fuerza Aerea Argentina (Argentine Air Force). These aircraft were refurbished by Lockheed Martin between 1995 and 2000, and re-designated A-4AR Fighting Hawks – BuNo 158413 was reworked in Argentina in 1999 and given the serial C-925. Issued to V Air Brigade’s Grupo de Caza No 5, the A-4ARs are currently flown by two squadrons from Villa Reynolds Air Force Base in San Luis, some 500 miles west of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires. C-925 has not flown since March 2004, having been ‘bagged up’ and placed in storage as a possible attrition replacement at Villa Reynolds.