254 Squadron, also known as the Midland Squadron (), is a former unit of the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

History

254 Squadron was formed in April 1980 at Hatzor to operate the IAI Kfir C-1. These had served with 109 Squadron which had begun to equip with the C-2 variant. Manned mainly by reserve pilots, 254 Squadron was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel

Giora Epstein Brigadier General Giora "Hawkeye" Epstein (; born May 20, 1938), today Giora Even (), is a retired Israeli Air Force (IAF) officer and a fighter ace credited with 17 victories, 16 against Egyptian jets and one against an Egyptian Mi-8 helico ...

, Israel's highest scoring fighter ace, and a reserve pilot himself. A year later the squadron received an additional aircraft type, the

Dassault Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizont ...

. The Mirage had once stood at the vanguard of the Israeli Air Force, claiming over 280 aerial victories to its name. By the late 1970s, however, these veteran French aircraft were superseded by the IAF's next generation of fighter aircraft, the American

F-15 Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force (USAF) selected McDonnell Douglas's des ...

and

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

. The first squadron to re-equip with the Falcon, 117 Squadron, had in 1979 transferred its former mounts to 253 Squadron at Eitam, and the latter was soon slated to receive the Falcon as well. Coinciding with Israel's withdrawal from the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

following the

Camp David Accords The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retre ...

, and in order to continue operating the Mirages pending their sale to Argentina, when 253 left Eitam for Ramon in late 1981, the remaining 22 Mirages made their way to Hatzor to join 254 Squadron. 254 Squadron was operating both types when the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

broke out, during which the Mirages continued flying

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

s. On at least one occasion they were even vectored towards enemy aircraft, but these were soon dispatched by F-15s also on the scene. They were soon thereafter retired. In 1984, as more Kfir C-2s were rolling off the production line, the Kfir C-1s were leased to the US military and 254 Squadron was deactivated.

Markings

The 254 Squadron badge was a stylized bird over the outline of Israel's coastline. Its Kfirs wore the standard four-tone camouflague used by all IAF delta-winged fighters at the time, though usually without the black identifications triangles common on the Mirages and IAI Neshers. They also carried serials in the 700 range, which were applied on the tail and nose gear. While with 253 Squadron, the Mirages had received blue rudders with two white chevrons separated by a black band. At the end of their tenure with the squadron some aircraft were seen with the top chevron changed to red. When the Mirages joined 254 Squadron, not only were the different rudders maintained, but both were applied to the Kfirs as well. The different markings may have been an attempt at disinformation, meant to mislead uninformed observers.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{Israeli Air Force Squadrons Israeli Air Force squadrons