F-5 Tiger II
ICAO F5A 1960s light fighter now mostly flying as an adversary aircraft. Live F-5 Tiger II positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No F-5 Tiger II is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Northrop
- Role
- Adversary training and light fighter
- Class
- L2J — Landplane, 2 jet engines
- Crew
- 1, or 2 in the F variant
- First flight
- 30 July 1959
- In service
- 1964
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the F-5 Tiger II
Most of the F-5s visible here are pretending to be someone else. The US Navy and Marine Corps fly the F-5N as an adversary aircraft, simulating an opposing fighter for aircrew working up to deployment, and those units transmit ADS-B far more readily than a front-line fighter squadron does.
The airframes themselves are older than the pilots. Many US Navy F-5Ns are ex-Swiss Air Force aircraft bought second hand and refurbished, which is why the type persists half a century after Northrop designed it as a cheap export fighter.
Elsewhere it is still a real fighter. Brazil, Iran, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and others operate upgraded F-5s, though few of those transmit in a way this feed would pick up.
Callsign prefixes
- SNIPER
- US Marine Corps adversary squadron block
- VIPER
- Recurring on adversary sorties, confusingly for a different type
How to recognise it
- —Small and sharp: a pointed nose, sharply swept wing roots and two tiny engines side by side.
- —Twin nose-wheel doors and prominent leading-edge extensions running forward from the wing.
- —Adversary aircraft often carry striking non-standard camouflage — splinter, blue, or desert schemes.
Common questions
+ Why does the US Navy fly a 1960s fighter?
Because adversary training does not need a modern aircraft, it needs a cheap, agile one available in numbers. The F-5N costs a fraction of a front-line fighter to fly and behaves enough like a small opposing jet to be useful.
+ Where did the US Navy F-5Ns come from?
Mostly Switzerland. The Swiss Air Force sold a large batch of low-hour F-5E and F-5F airframes, which were refurbished and re-serialled for American use.
+ Is the F-5 related to the T-38?
Closely. Both are Northrop designs from the same programme — the T-38 Talon is the trainer and the F-5 is the fighter developed from it. The family resemblance is obvious in the fuselage.