In the late fifties, the Kingdom of Rashir in the middle east, was granted Independence from Britain. An arrangement was made for Britain to train the Rashir military, and in the case of the KoRAF in particular, provide leaders, equipment and training.
The king and his two sons had trained at Cranwell and Sandhurst and were quite well up on air craft development.
The King wanted a single fast jet type that was easy to maintain and not be considered a huge threat to the neighbours. A three way deal was set up with U.K. Rashir and India to provide the Gnat in three basic types. In 1962 the first model arrived at Rashir city airport for the public to see.
The Brits produced a two seat armed trainer variant which, with 2x30mm cannon and extra underwing mounts could also fill the attack roll.
India built the fighter/interceptor variant with the requested Firestreak adaption arriving in 1963.
Britain provided wing, tail and undercarriage for the fighter/recce model, with India providing the rest and assembly.
The Gnat served until 1983 in the front line, and with spare airframes bought from the U.K. in the late 70s for spares, the trainer carried on until 1988.
