General Background

During the 1980s the U.S. military wasn’t interested in an updated version of the F-16 so they passed on the opportunity. Japan was replacing some of their aging fleet and decided to develop the new F-16 Agile Falcon in cooperation with Mitsubishi and Lockheed Martin. Production began in 1996 with the first aircraft being delivered in 2000. The new aircraft was named the F-2 and soon earned the nickname “Viper Zero”. Although the F-2 looks similar to the original F-16 it is larger in almost every aspect.

The Aircraft

To mark the 50th Anniversary of 6 Hikotai (air unit) a ceremony was held at Tsuiki Air Base in October 2009. For the celebration aircraft F-2A “53-8535” was given a special paint scheme. To represent the range of the squadrons aircraft over the years from the F- 86 to T-33, F-1 and T-4 the left side of the vertical stabilizer is painted like the camouflage of the F-1 while the right side of the vertical stabilizer is paint to represent their F-86.

The left vertical tail paint scheme represents the scheme of the F-1 while the right vertical paint scheme represents their former F-86.