 During this time, the Air Force's interest in the Starfighter was waning due to a shift in strategy toward fighters with longer ranges and heavier ordnance loads.As a result, the USAF reduced their orders of the F-104A from 722 to 170, and the F-104A and F-104B aircraft of the 83rd, 56th, and 337th Fighter Interceptor Squadrons (FIS) were handed over to the 151st, 157th, and 197th Squadrons of the Air National Guard after less than a year of service with the ADC.In August 1958, only a few months after establishing operational readiness with the F-104, the 83rd FIS was assigned to a peacekeeping mission in Taiwan after the People's Republic of China began an intense artillery campaign against the Nationalist Chinese on the disputed islands of Quemoy and Matsu.