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Starfighters In Europe

West Germany's decision to replace its F-84s and F-86s with the Starfighter was based upon competitive analysis of the 104 against the French Mirage and the Grumman Super Tiger, a derivative of the F-11 design. The starfighter enjoyed a wide margin of strike and reconnisance duties in addition to its demonstrated capability as an interceptor. The mult-mission F-104 embodied several design changes from the F-104C being operated by USAF, among them: Structural upgrading to allow low level high speed penetration and bomb carrying capability, sophisticated avionics which would permit air-to-ground target acquisition and tracking, and all-weather bombing capability.

Unfortunately, several circumstances combined to make the 104 something of an enigma as far as West Germany was concerned. On the one hand, the Luftwaffe could not seem to avoid crashing 104s at an alarming rate. The sophisitcated avionics which made the 104 an all-weather performer were themselves very sensitive to German weather and required and required the kind of maintenance that the inexperienced Luftwaffe ground crews were not able to provide.

The Starfighter's performance was sometimes more than the low-time Luftwaffe pilots could cope with, especially given the unforgiving nature of the beast. Altogether, the Luftwaffe has lost 178 starfighters as of this writing (1975). Strangely enough, the West German Navy, which resisted assignment of the 104 mightily, has had relatively little trouble with its Starfighters. Likewise, the other NATO nations which operated the 104 did so with a fraction of the trouble that the Luftwaffe experienced. The Luftwaffe suffered through the teething problems of the Starfighter, and its experience undoubtedly served to make other country's F-104 transition smoother.

Starfighter Units in Europe - 1975

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