It is mad to think they never even had a jet fighter in service!. The only true fighters they had were the Hawker Hurricanes and Spitfires.

If they were going to have Jet fighters, They should have F-16s, Old Mirage F-1s, A-4 Skyhawks, and maybe older F-18s but i dont think they spend much on thier defence. The A-4 Skyhawk would well suit the Irish being a small nifty attack plane. I dont think they would need fighters much but Attackers would suit them. How about the OV-10 Bronco?

Heard they will be getting new aircraft soon.

One time i went to an airshow, I seen a Lear/Gulfstream type buisness jet armed with missiles under its wings, Could it be thiers?

A list of aircraft that would suit them:

Douglas A-1 Skyraiders.

Republic F-84s.

BAE Hawks

DeHavilland Vampires/Venoms.

Vought F-7 Cutlass.

Gloster Meteors.

Avro Canada CF-100 Canucks.

NUMBER ONE CHOICE
A-4 Skyhawks.

Guess early jets would suit them, Didnt Australia/New Zealand still operate F-86 Sabres till the 1990s?

Those Irish are outdated with some weaponry, They still use British 25 Pounder Guns!



[edit on 27-12-2005 by Browno]

Yeah... When I once made a thread about different countries air-forces, I was really surprised when I heard that Ireland doesn't ahve a "real" fighter...

Er, The Republic of Ireland did have jets actually.

6 Fouga Magister trainer/light strike jets.

They retired them in 1999 as the Irish armed forces have no actual need of any such aircraft nor the expense of operating any such pointless 'totem'.

Ireland's armed forces are 'tuned' towards what they need and actually do.

In other words, making a significant and internationally highly respected contribution towards the UN's international peace-keeping forces.

Which they do.

Uhm, we have no fighters as we have no need for them... something I'm in complete support of - why waste millions of euros a yr on something that will just be gathering dust.

The Irish Air Corps concentrates on SAR work with the coastguard, and flying Bertie around - that pretty much it.

One of the fellas in my undergrad class was with them before uni, I think he flew a few hours on single props (maybe pipers or cessnas, I've no idea).

we dont need an army or an air force who in their right mind would want to invade this country we were a head ach for 800 years to the english who tried to treat us as equals ( I know they did some bad things to us but they also did some very good things for us,)it was the chatolic church who stop the progress of the irish as the second country of the british empire

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Judging by the above two posts, I'm going to tread carefully....

The Irish air corps are the size they need to be. Over the last 20 years vast amounts of foreign aid have been given to Ireland and if they had a real defence requirement I have no doubt British or EU produced aircraft would have been provided.
Their requirements are based around fishing protections, anti-smuggling operations and geographical survery work and their inventory matches them precisely.
It also doesnt hurt that they are sadwiched between two close allies (Britain and France) who are the regional military powers.

Jensy

Originally posted by jensy

It also doesnt hurt that they are sandwiched between two close allies (Britain and France) who are the regional military powers.

Jensy

Ireland are? I think you need a new atlas Jensy, yours appears to be defective.



[edit on 28-5-2010 by waynos]

Originally posted by waynos
Ireland are? I think you need a new atlas Jensy, yours appears to be defective.

Oh Christ, I feel an "Ireland is out of place on the map" thread looming on the horizon.

[edit on 28/5/10 by pieman]

Still lurking my friend, tbh there haven't been too many threads that grabbed my interest lately, but when I saw your post I couldn't help myself. Did you like the artwork?

PS, I did realise what you really meant, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

[edit on 1-6-2010 by waynos]

What does Ireland need a "real fighter" for? They have absolutely no need for air superiority anywhere.

We are a peaceful and mostly neutral nation. We do not need any new planes.

I say mostly neutral becuase depending on who is in power they will accept 'brown envelopes' to let troops use some airports passing through to bomb other countries.

The fact that our country is now bankrupt will mean that our pretend army/airforce/navy could be shrinking even more.

On a more serious note our troops have been used in many peace keeping missions and done great work