Foreign upgrades that surpass original aircraft

[Scott Kenny]

Why has no country that used F4 Phantoms ever created their own electronic warfare G version?

Probably because it's so specialized that any situation that would call for it would have the US on their side and bringing Wild Weasels. And also because more and more planes were able to carry HARMs or ALARMs.

After the F-4s were retired, you got the Tornado ECRs built.

 

[Sineva]

In 1942 the Spanish Government ordered the modification of the Bf 109 E-3 (6-119), replacing the engine by one 1,300 hp. Hispano Suiza H.S.12-Z89. The prototype, named H.A.1109 J1, was flight tested in Muntadas-Barcelona by Lt. Lacour in October 1942, revealing problems of overheating. By the beginning of 1945, one H.S.12-Z89 was installed in the Bf 109 G-2 airframe imported from Germany. The new model was named H.A.1109 J1L, flying for the first time with a three-bladed Hamilton Standard propeller on March 2, 1945, without solving the engine overheating problem.

In 1951, it was decided to replace the engine by the H.S.12-Z17 variant, considered more secure. The new H.A.1109 K version was equipped with a three-bladed de Havilland PD-63 propeller and went into service for the Ejercito del Aire in a number of 30 units. Other Bf 109 G-2 were converted into the H.A.1112 M by installing the British R.R. Merlin 500/45 engines with four-bladed Rotol R-116 propellers from the summer of 1953.

None of these transformations produced any satisfactory result.

Theres also the spanish built version of the HE-111,the CASA_2.111 series.
This was a mixture of reengined and new builds using the RR Merlin engine and the nacelle developed for the beaufighter II and Lancaster.
Performance looks to have been comparable to its german engined predecessor and it even saw combat in the ifni war in 1957/58

 

[Archibald]

Hispano-Suiza three countries status (Spain and France and Switzerland) led to a whole bunch of bizarro WWII and post- WWII funny things. The 12Y and 12Z spread to a whole bunch of countries outside France, and the engines powered planes well into the 1960's.

By the way, circa 1941 Vichy France made available its extensive aircraft industry to Nazi Germany: to produce second-line types: trainers and transports, mostly.
Again, this led to some very weird situations.
Such as much upgraded Arado 96 trainers used for CAS in Algeria, 12 years after 1945... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_96
Also Fieseler Storch turned MS.500 Criquet.
Siebel 204 turned Martinet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_Martinet

And a few more.

 

[F.L.]

Such as much upgraded Arado 96 trainers used for CAS in Algeria, 12 years after 1945... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_96

Sipa S.10, S.11 & S.12 family.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Theres also the spanish built version of the HE-111,the CASA_2.111 series.
This was a mixture of reengined and new builds using the RR Merlin engine and the nacelle developed for the beaufighter II and Lancaster.
Performance looks to have been comparable to its german engined predecessor and it even saw combat in the ifni war in 1957/58

Combat?

My father was stationed in Sidi Ifni when all this happened and he told me that the incident was a comedy staged by the Americans to prove that the Spanish Air Force F-86s were not really ours. Something similar to what they are trying to do now with Israel. The He 111 was already obsolete in 1940 and had a bad reputation among Spanish pilots who preferred the Ju 52 to fly from the Canary Islands to Ifni.