Hi Mick
One of the most successful aircraft ever built. Just checked a vague memory I had on Wikipedia - the Hunter was not retired from the Lebanese Air Force until 2014!! Now that's a long service career
Jim
Lebanese Air Force
The
Lebanese Air Force operated Hawker Hunters from 1958 to 2014. A Lebanese Hunter shot down an Israeli jet over
Kfirmishki in the early 1960s; its pilot was captured by the
Lebanese Armed Forces.
[100] One Hunter was shot down on the first day of the
Six-Day War by the
Israeli Air Force. They were used infrequently during the
Lebanese Civil War,
[101] and eventually fell out of usage and went into storage during the 1980s.
[102]
In August 2007, the Lebanese Armed Forces planned to put its Hunters back into service following the
2007 Lebanon conflict, to deal with
Fatah al-Islam militants in the Nahr el-Bared camp north of Tripoli.
[103] The programme was delayed by lack of spare parts for the aircraft, such as cartridges for the Martin-Baker ejection seats.
[104] On 12 November 2008, 50 years after its original introduction, the Lebanese Air Force returned four of its eight Hunters to service with 2nd Squadron, based at Rayak AB: one two-seater and three single-seaters. Military exercises were conducted with Hunters, such as those that took place on 12 July 2010.
[104][105] The Hunters were retired from service during 2014.
[106]