“Splinter” paint schemes have become a distinguishing feature of U.S. Air Force Aggressors and later appeared on Iranian F-14s (under the name of Asian Minor II camouflage).
Noteworthy, we have recently received an email from Gregory Slusher, a reader of The Aviationist, who explained in a really interesting email how the color scheme was “inadvertently invented” for U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets.
“As a young U.S. Marine Sergent, me and my fellow corrosion control techs inadvertently invented the paint design,” Slusher explains.
“The squadron in question is F/A-18 squadron VMFAT-101 out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California. The unit is a pilot training squadron and as such features quite a bit of air-to-air training. With the standard grey paint scheme, rookie Hornet pilots could not distinguish their targets from “friendlies.” My CO tasked our corrosion shop with creating and aggressive paint scheme that would help to aid the young pilots in target ID. It took us a few attempts, but we settled on a randomly placed collection of geometric shapes.”
So, the “splinter” color scheme was not introduced to make the jets similar to their Russian adversaries, just to make them more visible.
“Tail number 26 was our prototype, and is obviously not as angular. We were not completely satisfied. Tail number 34 was when we had really hit upon a formula that we and the command enjoyed. Tail number 12 was a desert variant and our favorite of the jets we painted. Initially we did not paint the radome since they are swapped frequently. Later, the shop gained the approval to paint them.”
Image credit: Gregory Slusher
If you “google” VMFAT-101, you would see much of their work, as it has been photographed quite extensively at air shows, well before other services decided to apply a similar paint scheme to their planes.
Top image: Capt. John “Tank” Voss, USMC via Gregory Slusher
Wearing the typical white color scheme, used to keep a “low profile” and appear similar to general aviation aircraft during its rather clandestine mission, the highly modified Canberra registered N926NA arrived to RAF Mildenhall, UK, from Souda Bay, Crete, on Dec. 2 and left the British airport to Lajes field, Azores, on Dec. 3.
The following picture was taken at Mildenhall by The Aviationist’s contributor Tony Lovelock.
According to the information released by NASA, the spooky N926NA (stripped off of all the NASA’s markings) will be back in Houston for maintenance until Feb. 2013, and then leave again on Feb. 28, 2013, on another deployment outside the U.S. (most probably in Afghanistan) until Sept. 30, 2013.
Coalition Forces attend a memorial service in honor of Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible at Camp Bastion, Helmand province, Afghanistan Sept. 19, 2012. Raible, commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211, Marine Aircraft Group 13, 3D Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), was killed in action while repealing an enemy attack on Camp Bastion Sept. 14, 2012.
The insurgent attack that cost the life of the squadron’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Christopher Raible, and wiped out the majority of the American jump jets operating “in theater”, has not prevented the U.S. Marine Corps unit to fly the daily close air support missions for the infantry battalions or the patrol owerwatch sorties, aimed to spot typical ambush positions.
In fact, on Sept. 26, the squadron received six new airframes, both in the VMA-211 “Avengers” and in the VMA-231 “Ace of Spades” markings, to continue the deployment.
A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier sits on the flight line at Camp Bastion, Helmand province, Afghanistan Sept. 26, 2012. The Harrier was one of six relocated to Camp Bastion to increase the overall readiness level of Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211 and is painted in memory of Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible and Sgt. Bradley W. Atwell, who were killed during an attack on Camp Bastion Sept. 14, 2012.
One of the aircraft is painted in memory of Lt. Col. Christopher K. Raible and Sgt. Bradley W. Atwell, who were killed during an attack on Camp Bastion Sept. 14, 2012.
The Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 211 “Avengers” that was decimated on Friday Sept. 14, when a force of insurgents attacked Camp Bastion, in Helmand, has not only lost two Marines and eight of the ten AV-8B+ Harrier jets deployed in Afghanistan.
According to UTSanDiego.com, Marine and family sources have confirmed that Lt. Col. Chris “Otis” Raible, commanding officer of the Yuma squadron is among the killed in action of the unprecedented attack that resulted in the destruction of six jump jets and significant damage (possibly beyond repair) to two more Harriers belonging to the VMA-211, the unit he commanded.
Raible led the “Avengers” when the unit, deployed to Afghanistan in April 2012, relocated from Kandahar Airfield to Camp Bastion on Jul. 1 and he’s depicted in most of the images released by the U.S. Marine Corps to give account of the transfer.
Camp Bastion was in close proximity to all the units they supported and this gave the VMA-211 the opportunity to conduct more combat operations and communicate more effectively with the ground combat element.
Unfortunately neither Raible nor the rest of the “Avengers” could predict the attack that cost the U.S. the worst air loss to enemy fire in one day since the Vietnam War, that has rendered the Squadron unable to support the troops in the ground and compelled the Marine Corps to fly the remaining two airframes back home.
Image credit: U.S. Marine Corps
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