rom late January 1963 onwards. In fact, it appears that eleven rather than ten new B 26s arrived at this time. Unlike the previous B 26s and RB 26s allocated to Farm Gate, which had all come from other classified projects and had only received limited overhauls, the new arrivals had all been through a complete IRAN at Hill AFB under Project Big Fence. General Anthis later also asked for a further B 26 squadron of twenty-five aircraft, but this never materialized.
Two of the new aircraft reaching Farm Gate in early 1963 were rather special Invaders, known as RB 26Ls. They had been modified by General Dynamics at Fort Worth - with assistance from E-Systems at nearby Greenville - during 1962, under Project Sweet Sue. Apart from the multitude of conventional cameras and associated equipment carried by both aircraft, one of them was also equipped with a Reconofax VI infrared aerial mapping system, which could be used for night time surveillance of suspected Viet Cong lines of march and communication. The two RB 26Ls arrived at Bien Hoa on 3 March 1963 and from 5 March they were flown daily, on a maximum effort basis, virtually replacing the RB-26Cs in the reconnaissance role. At this point they were the only aircraft in South Vietnam with any real night reconnaissance capability, apart from the single RC 97 of Project Brave Bull. Unfortunately, the infrared system was difficult to be made to work properly in the damp and dusty climate, and did not prove as effective as originally hoped for. A third RB 26L was kept at Eglin in Florida, for training. It was also employed on a moose count project in Isle Royale National Park, Michigan!
By 1 April 1963 the Farm Gate strike aircraft strength stood at twelve B 26Bs and thirteen T 28Bs. The number of personnel had more than doubled, to around 350, but there was still only one air crew available for each aircraft. Together with the two VNAF squadrons, which had a total of some fifty Skyraiders and T 28s, these twenty-five aircraft formed the only dedicated air strike capability in South Vietnam. The planning called for a further increase of Farm Gate strength, the target figure for the Invader being eighteen aircraft on hand in Vietnam, including the RB 26Ls. A further three Invaders were to be held in reserve within the Pacific Air Forces area. This target was reached for a brief period in mid 1963, but later the number decreased gradually to a dozen or so aircraft at hand, mainly due to the increasing aircraft losses during the year and the need to rotate aircraft to Taiwan for maintenance.
The last four B 26s to be received by Farm Gate, arriving at Bien Hoa in the summer of 1963, were survivors of the CIA operation in Indonesia in 1958. They differed from all other B 26Bs in Vietnam in still having their wing guns mounted. As explained elsewhere, all the aircraft involved in Indonesia had been struck off charge as 'obsolete' in 1957, and officially they no longer existed. Three of those given to Farm Gate had been reserve aircraft during the operation, and had spent most of the time since 1958 in storage with Air Asia in Taiwan as CIA assets, until finally being allocated to Farm Gate in the spring of 1963. The fourth is probably the one which managed to intrigue even the Farm Gate personnel. In a report it is mentioned that one of the B 26s 'was "found" at Clark Air Base in 1961 and put into commission for a ferry flight to Tainan for limited clean up. No historical records exist for the aircraft and the accountability of the aircraft itself remains a puzzle.' It is quite likely that the aircraft in question was 44 34376, which had participated in actual operations in Indonesia. When the operation was wound down it had presumably been flown back to Clark, where nobody was terribly eager to get involved with this 'non existent' bomber. So it was simply ignored and left to rot in some quiet corner of the field, until eventually brought to Taiwan in 1961.
A report from 1963, titled 'Tactical Analysis of B/RB 26 Aircraft in Republic of Vietnam,' listed the various types of COIN miss