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1982 World Airpower Guide
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The years 1981 and 1982 have seen a burgeoning and lucrative market for military aircraft worldwide. This demand has barely let up as billions of dollars change hands between world governments and large corporations. In recent times the world has been set alight with disputes, skirmishes, conflicts and the like adding to the general chaos.
The traditional protagonists of the mid-East have assured their place in the world spotlight, Iran and Iraq continuing in their struggle to defeat each other with heavy resultant losses in the war which now has raged for over two years. Israel launched a devastatingly efficient attack on June 6, 1982, in an effort to rid their borders of the P. L. O. once and for all. The invasion which lasted until late August when a final successful truce was instigated, saw some of the heaviest aerial bombardments upon a basically civilian target yet experienced. Syria, acting now as the so-called leader of the Arab world in place of Egypt, and as the major protagonist against Israel, attempted to halt the Israeli control of Lebanese air and land territory but in the process lost scores of MiG-21 and MiG-23 fighters, missile batteries, and also a recce configured MiG-25.
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In the South Atlantic, a scattered group of windswept islands, known to most of the world as the Falkland Islands, a British dependency, overnight became the centre of conflict between a superpower and the military-controlled republic of Argentina. In the weeks that progressed, lives and equipment were lost as a British task force of assorted naval vessels attempted to evict the invading Argentine forces.
Closer to home, the long-awaited decision on the Mirage replacement was announced in the form of the McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornet. Things did not turn out as happily for the RAN Fleet Air Arm as those for the RAAF, their elation at the Invincible being chosen as their new flagship soon turning to dismay when the bottom fell out of this arrangement in light of the Falklands conflict. Naval aviation again appears to have to languish as the search for a new carrier progresses.
Whilst every effort has been made in making this guide as accurate and up-to-date as possible, some errors may occur since, in listing quantities of aircraft in each air arm, exact numbers of each type cannot always be accurately ascertained due to either normal attrition or losses suffered in the conflict. Some air arms list certain aircraft in their inventories that are largely on reserve status or non-operational due to a lack of spares and/or training. Classic examples of these would be Vietnam, Iran, Kampuchea, Lebanon and Uganda. The operational status of captured aircraft, such as those in Vietnam, is largely dependent upon aircraft type and the maintenance expertise of that particular nation.
AUSTRALIAN AVIATION is proud to bring you, our reader, the 1982 World Air Power Guide so that you may always be fully up to date on just which nation operates what equipment.
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