The Aviation Magazine No 52 September-October 2017 | Page 8
Air‐to‐air courtesy of Major Lambros Tolias of 348 TRS.
History of the 348 MTA
On November 26th, 1953, the 348th Tactical Reconnaissance Flight was established, based at Eleusis AB.
They flew the F‐84 with a downward looking camera mounted in the front section of the left wingtip tank.
July 5th, 1954, the flight moved to Larissa AB. Almost one year later, the flight was upgraded to Squadron
status and became a full member of the NATO Recce Forces. From 1955 until 1957, the squadron flew the RT‐
33A, a conversion of the T‐33A trainer aircraft, by removing the back seat and adding a new nose section to
accommodate state of the art photo camera equipment.
In August 1956, the squadron received its first RF‐84F Thunderflash, as shown above. For the time being, the
RF‐84F was a highly sophisticated aircraft. Its three nose‐mounted cameras could photograph targets inde‐
pendently or with overlaps from horizon to horizon.
The squadron received its first RF‐4E on November 3rd, 1978. With eight RF‐44Es delivered to the HAF a spe‐
cific RF‐4E squadron, the 348 MTA RF‐4, was established and operated in parallel to 348 MTA.
In July 1987, the two squadrons merged into 348 MTA, flying both the RF‐84F and the RF‐4E. After the RF‐84F
being withdrawn from frontline service and the loss of three RF‐4Es, the HAF needed additional RF‐4Es.
Luckily, the German Air Force retired some of their RF‐4Es and sold 27 aircraft to Greece. 20 of these joined
the active fleet while the remaining seven were used as spare parts source. The ex‐German aircraft had their
Radar Warning Receiver equipment removed and were not able to carry and launch AIM‐9 Sidewinder mis‐
siles.
In 2003, the squadron was assigned an additional role: Electronic Intelligence by using
the ASTAC (Analyseur de Signaux Tactiques). This is a reconnaissance system used to
intercept and analyze tactical and technical data on RF emissions radiated by land‐
based radars and weapon systems.
In its 64 years of existence the 348 MTA has accumulated some 181,000 flight hours.
With the retirement of the RF‐4E the analog, film based aerial reconnaissance has
come to its end, being replaced by the Goodrich DB‐110 pod. The DB 110 is a digital,
compact, day/night, two‐axis stabilized, real‐time, tactical reconnaissance pod system
carried by F‐16 Block 50 aircraft.