Why doesn’t the F-5 get much love despite serving in over a dozen wars and for over 60 years?
Why doesnt the F-5 get much love despite serving in over a dozen wars and for over 60 years?
Why doesn’t the F-5 get much love despite serving in over a dozen wars and for over 60 years?
The MIC hates it because it's cheap
frick off pierre
because dog fighting was a thing that happened before the advent of BVR missiles, if the f-5 existed in WW2 or Korea it would be the thing, but it wasn't.
too little, too late.
Limited range.
Day fighter most of its life.
Its landing gear limited its payload.
lazy copy of the mig-28
it was the star of sideshows without a lot of primetime compared to other US planes
It gets plenty of love. It's arguably the second biggest jet aircraft star after the F-14 thanks to it's appearance in Top Gun, along with its real-life use in the actual Top Gun program, and among military enthusiasts it's super well known for its wide use, like you note.
Eternal reminder that the F-20 was the chosen one
All of the people who orgasm over the Gripen being some sort of amazing achievement of Swedish ingenuity and practicality seem to forget the F-20 ever existed.
The freedom fighter gets tons of love for how little it actually did.
It's a cool jet, a plane nerd cult classic and that's just about right.
I like it, you like it. It's a beautiful piece of equipment.
That doesn't mean it needs to stand shoulder to shoulder with legends like the F-15.
For decades now experienced Aggressor pilots in F-5s have been training new pilots in far better aircraft by humiliating them in dogfights. That's a very useful role in it's own way. It ensures those pilots being schooled have the experience and smarts to avoid a similar outcome in the real world. Imagine getting shot down by something like an ancient MiG-21 because you were doing something stupid a new pilot might. Like getting overly-focused on a turning fight. It doesn't matter if you can out-turn them if the MiG-21's wingman you weren't tracking cuts in and takes you out.
>dogfights no longer happen
Yeah I know but you still have to train pilots for the possibility they could somehow end up in that situation.
I don't disrespect it's role it plays. It's a Lotus of fighter jets. And being a capable, cheap trainer and aggressor is valuable.
All I'm saying is the view here is a bit nearsighted.
He's a good plane, he served and serves well. But being sexy, sleek and a great dancer doesn't mean he deserves or even really needs the limelight.
I suppose it and the F-20 are painful to know the story of and that's part of what drives this kind of romantic procurement revanchism among it's devotees.
Not everything you love needs to be a superstar known in every home.
and that's alright.
Damnit, Anon here is right even through the double punch of Tigershark and Ontos references. The F-5 series was awesome but they served their purpose for the United States and should be remembered fondly for what they did, full stop.
no longer happen
when everybody has stealth it will be the only thing happening.
I mean to be fair, the T-38 got massive love being a trainer aircraft, so even if the fighter/attack variants didn't get appreciation I'm pretty sure the vast majority of living Air Force pilots flew a T-38 at some point so I'd say it's still a successful plane platform (chassis?) T-20 would have been cool but I also understand why it didn't work out
Also this
it might not have killed as many brown/yellow people as you wish but It's done it's time and pulled it's own weight
how many kills does it have?
Is the the most advanced version of the F-5?
>F-5TH Super Tigris
>An upgraded version of the F-5E of Royal Thai Air Force by Israel's Elbit Systems and Thai's RV Connex, it has a new glass wienerpit and head-up display upgrade and equipped with EL/M-2032 radar, RTAF-developed Link-T/TH tactical datalink, Sky Shield jamming pod and are capable of firing the AIM-9M, IRIS-T, Python-4 and beyond visual range air-to-air Derby missile.
If only you could do something like replace the two J85s with a single F404 that could provide something like 70% more thrust than both J85s combined.
The unlucky guys at Northrop really did come up with the F-20 two decades too early. The market for it wasn't there in the 80s when it was directly competing with the F-16.
Such a lewd little plane..