A Voodoo with eyes on the Task Force

Spinners · February 22, 2023

McDonnell RF-101D Voodoo - Voodoo Reconnaissance Flight, Grupo 2, Fuerza Aérea Argentina, 1982

After President Juan Perón was ousted during the short 'Revolución Libertadora' in 1955, US-Argentine relations improved to the extent that, in 1959, President Arturo Frondizi became the first Argentine president to visit the United States. Soon after, Argentina supported the isolation of Cuba after 1960 and also supported the American Alliance for Progress and also the American invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. US President Lyndon Baines Johnson rewarded Argentinian President Arturo Umberto Illia with a military aid package with the main beneficiary being the Fuerza Aérea Argentina who received 20 North American F-100C Super Sabres, 15 Convair F-102A Delta Dagger interceptors and 15 McDonnell RF-101A Voodoo reconnaissance aircraft. All 50 aircraft were drawn from USAF stocks and delivered during the latter part of 1965 and early 1966.

The RF-101A Voodoo's were hastily refurbished by McDonnell to emerge as RF-101D's with all classified equipment removed and entered service in May 1966. By early 1982 the Fuerza Aérea Argentina's force of RF-101D's had dwindled to just the six aircraft of the Voodoo Reconnaissance Flight attached to the Canberra equipped Grupo 2 de Bombardeo based at Río Grande on the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego. During the Falklands War of 1982, the RF-101D's flew several missions to locate the British fleet with a final sortie over the north-west coast of East Falkland on May 22nd to photograph the position of the British Amphibious Task Group after the landings of the previous evening. In total, the Voodoo Reconnaissance flight flew 21 'Malvinas' missions with no losses.