On Mark B-26K 64-17649 Central Intelligence Agency

These are 1/72 scale decals for On Mark B-26K, serial 64-17649, assigned to the 211th Squadron, Congolese Air Force — an aircraft operating under CIA cover as part of the clandestine Operation Anstalt Wigmo, with most of its sorties flown by Cuban anti-communist exile pilots during one of the Cold War's most obscure and dramatic proxy conflicts.

The On Mark B-26K Counter Invader was a comprehensive remanufacture of the WWII-era Douglas B-26 Invader, carried out by On Mark Engineering to produce a modernized counterinsurgency strike aircraft. With strengthened wings, more powerful engines, eight nose-mounted .50-caliber machine guns, and an expanded ordnance capacity, the B-26K was purpose-built for the low-intensity conflict environment — rugged, hard-hitting, and capable of operating from austere forward airstrips in some of the world's most remote and hostile terrain.

Operation Anstalt Wigmo was a CIA-directed covert air operation launched in support of the Congolese central government during the chaotic Congo Crisis of the mid-1960s, when the newly independent nation was torn apart by secessionist rebellions and Cold War proxy maneuvering. To maintain plausible deniability, the aircraft were nominally assigned to the Congolese Air Force's 211th Squadron, but the operation's aircrew were predominantly Cuban exile pilots — veterans of the Bay of Pigs and other CIA-sponsored operations — who brought their fierce anti-communist conviction and combat experience to the skies over central Africa. The operation represented one of the CIA's most ambitious and least-known covert air campaigns of the Cold War era.

An extraordinary subject at the intersection of Cold War geopolitics, covert aviation, and the twilight of the Invader's long operational life. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.