Export Skyhawks (A-4H/N, A-4P/Q/AR, A-4G/K, A-4KU, A-4S/SU)
From Israel to New Zealand — the Skyhawk's long second career abroad · First flight 1967 (A-4H) · Exported from 1966
Israel became the largest foreign Skyhawk user. The A-4H, first flown on 27 October 1967, replaced the Colt 20 mm guns with twin 30 mm DEFA cannon, and 90 were delivered; the A-4N, based on the US Marine Corps A-4M, entered service in early 1973. In total Israel bought 217 Skyhawks and received 46 more from US units in 1973.
Argentina received rebuilt A-4Bs and A-4Cs as the A-4P and A-4Q from 1966 and flew them in the 1982 Falklands conflict; from 1999 they were replaced by 36 A-4AR Fightinghawks rebuilt from ex-Marine A-4Ms with F-16-derived avionics, which served until 14 May 2026. Australia bought 20 A-4Gs for the carrier HMAS Melbourne, and New Zealand ordered ten A-4Ks and four TA-4Ks in 1970, later upgrading them with an AN/APG-66NZ radar under Project Kahu; the RNZAF retired them in 2001.
Kuwait ordered 36 new A-4KU/TA-4KUs in 1974, and Brazil later bought 20 A-4KUs and three TA-4KUs from Kuwait as the AF-1 and AF-1A — the last military Skyhawks still flying. Singapore remanufactured ex-US A-4Bs and A-4Cs into the A-4S, and re-engined them with a non-afterburning General Electric F404 as the A-4SU Super Skyhawk; front-line service ended in 2005 and training flights in France in 2013.
