I
n December 1959 the Netherlands
Ministry of Defence announced its
decision to purchase the Lockheed
F-104G Star ghter.
Production for the Royal Netherlands Air
Force (KLu) was a part of the ‘North Group’
of F-104 manufacturing companies that
included Fokker, Aviolanda, Phillips in the
Netherlands, and West German producers
Focke Wulf and Hamburger Flugzeugbau.
Fokker made components and was
responsible for nal assembly and ight
testing at Schiphol.The rst Dutch-assembled F-104G ew
on November 11, 1961 with the initial two
aircraft (D-8013 and D-8022) delivered to
Twenthe Air Base on December 12, 1962. In
total, the KLu took delivery of 138 examples:
77 F-104G and 18 RF-104G single seat
aircraft from Fokker, 25 supplied by Fiat in
Italy and 18 two-seat TF-104Gs provided
direct from Lockheed in the US.
Intended for both low-level ground attack
and high-level interceptor roles, the F-104G
was powered by a General Electric J-79GE-
11A engine producing 10,000lb of thrust,15,000lb with afterburner. It was tted with
an internal 20mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon
plus ve external hardpoints; one on each
wing tip, two underwing and one on the
centreline. This allowed a mix of fuel tanks,
unguided rockets and bombs, including
a free-fall nuclear weapon, plus AIM-9
Sidewinder missiles, to be carried. Accurate
low-level navigation was enabled by a Litton
Industries LN-3 inertial navigation system.
Some KLu F-104Gs could be tted
with an internal ALQ-126 electronic
countermeasure (ECM) system,DUTCH STARS
Dr Kevin Wright examines the Starfi ghter in Royal Netherlands
Air Force service and talks to former F-104G display pilot
Hans van der Werf about his unique experience with the aircraft.
36 Aviation News incorporating Jets August 2018STARFIGHTER SPECIAL
36-40_starfighter_dutchDC.mfDC.mf.indd 36 04/07/2018 17:29