In the 60's the Canadian military chose the Douglas A-4F as it's new light fighter, beating out Northrop's F-5. For the Canadian military, an important deciding factor for the Scooter was it is designed for carrier operations. Canadair begins license production of the A-4F in the late 60's producing over 150 units for the RCAF and the RCN. Additional production goes to the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Italy.
Also in the late, 60's a "NATO carrier" was in the planning stages. The NATO carrier was to be a class of medium/light CV (somewhat analogous in size to the Essex-class (post SCB-27/SCB-125 modernization) or Clemenceau-class. However, the plan was to produce enough hulls, on an almost assembly line like basis, to replace all of the aging WWII era carriers (the Essex-class, Centaur-class, Majestic-class, Colossus-class, etc.). The NATO carrier was to be produced in volume and with similar levels of equipment to reduce costs. Additionally, they were designed so that shipyards in all of the major NATO countries could build them. NATO leadership made this carrier a priority and by the mid-70's the CVV was found in slips in shipyards on both sides of the Atlantic.
The US ended up using it's CVV's as an adjunct to it's heavy carrier force (the Nimitz's, Forrestal's & Enterprise) ordering 5, the UK built 3, the French Navy and Canadian Navy ordered 2, and the Italian, Spanish, Netherlands and German Navies all built 1. Additionally, outside of NATO, the Australian Navy ordered 2 and the Argentine, Brazilian and Indian Navies all bought 1. All told by the end of the 80's, 19 CVV's were built. By the mid-90's additional orders were coming in, with the Japanese Navy indicating interest in ordering at least 1 and the Indian Navy wanting to place follow on orders for 2 additional units.
For the RCN, the CVV brought a new lease on life to it's Naval Air Arm. Canadair renewed it's production contract with McDonnell Douglas for additional units of A-4M Skyhawks. However, legacy A-4F's were not neglected. Along with the newer A-4M's, all Canadian A-4's (both A-4F's and A-4M's) received a thorough modernization, starting with new GE F404 engines. The Canadian Super Skyhawks also received modern ECM systems, electronics, an internal targeting & laser designation system, a modern radar and numerous other upgrades.
The typical Canadian carrier air wing now features modernized A-4's, F/A-18C's and F/A-14E's (ASF-14/Super Tomcat 21's).
Here's my RCN A-4F+ (CA-4F+) Super Skyhawk, this particular aircraft is seen during an lengthy cruise to South America, French Polynesia and a Red Flag exercises in Nevada. She was also used to test a new formula of paint with stealth characteristics in a salty, marine environment. The paint did not fair well in the salt-air and variable temperatures from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean to the South Pacific Ocean...
Cheers & happy modeling, Bryan