Fictional Fuerza Aerea de Chile's V Brigada, Grupo de Aviacion N7 F/A-18C in Compass Ghost gray scheme.
Back in '97, the Chilean government started the F2000 program, a very expensive fighter program in search of a 4th generation jet that could replace the aging 3rd generation fleets, mostly Mirage M5Ms and Mirage M50 Panteras. Several options were presented to the Chilean authorities, including the complex and expensive F/A-18C, the Mirage 2000-5, and the brand-new JAS-39C. Despite the Gripen beating every other contender in technical and financial aspects, it lacked one critical thing: a proven combat history, of which the Viper had more than any other. The F-16 was chosen as the winner of this program, and on December 27th, 2000, Chile bought 10 Block 50 Vipers from Lockheed Martin through the "Peace Puma" program, and the first C-model was rolled out on April 14th, 2005. 10 jets wasn't deemed enough, so the MoD bought 36 second-hand MLU Vipers between 2005 and 2010 from the Dutch Government. By 2007, all Block 50's were delivered and handed over to the 3rd Aviation Group based at Los Condores air base in Iquique, bordering Peru and Bolivia, and the MLUs went to the 7th and 8th Groups based at Cerro Moreno AB in Antofagasta.
Frankly, Boeing's classic F/A-18C offer probably never was the favorite option. The Hornet was more complex, heavier, and most importantly, way costlier than the other budget-friendly single-engined contenders. However, there's no doubt that the Hornet would've been the most capable multirole fighter in South America, just like the Block 50 F-16 was back then. This livery is meant to somewhat realistically represent that hypothetical scenario, sporting the standard Compass Ghost gray scheme and 7th Group patches and numerals.
This livery uses some very crude custom cleaner roughmets I made for all of my new Hornets, for now. Thanks to Megalax for his game-changing template!
Any questions or suggestions? DM me on Discord: sgmoncayo
