Northrop F-5 variant
Northrop F-5 F-5C Skoshi Tiger
Twelve F-5As modified at the Palmdale plant for the Skoshi Tiger combat evaluation the USAF ran in Vietnam from October 1965. They received a removable, non-retractable air-refuelling probe on the left side, 90 lb of external armour plates under the cockpit and engine, and jettisonable stores pylons.
- 12
- Units built
History
The only American combat version
The F-5C was born of a political decision rather than a technical one. In October 1965 the USAF opened a five-month combat evaluation named Skoshi Tiger with twelve F-5A Freedom Fighters delivered to the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Squadron. Before deploying, the aircraft passed through the Palmdale plant, where they received a removable, non-retractable air-refuelling probe on the left side of the fuselage, 90 lb of external armour plates under the cockpit and engine, improved instruments and jettisonable stores pylons. So modified, they were redesignated F-5C.
Vietnam
Over the following six months they flew more than 2,600 sorties, both from Bien Hoa Air Base with the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing over South Vietnam and from Da Nang Air Base, from where operations were flown over Laos. One aircraft was lost in combat, killing its pilot, USAF Major Joe Baggett. The evaluation was declared a success, the F-5 being generally rated as capable a ground-attacker as the F-100 Super Sabre, albeit with shorter range.
From April 1966 operations continued under the 10th Fighter Squadron, Commando, with the force boosted to 17 aircraft and a further 7,300 sorties flown. Combining the missions of the 4503rd TFS and the 10th FSC, nine aircraft were lost in Vietnam: seven to enemy ground fire and two to operational causes. In June 1967 the survivors of the 10th Fighter Squadron, Commando, were transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force.
What Skoshi Tiger meant
The programme was in essence a political gesture intended to aid F-5 exports rather than a serious consideration of the type for US service. USAF doctrine over North Vietnam rested on heavier, faster, longer-ranged aircraft such as the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The commercial effect was nonetheless immediate: following Skoshi Tiger the Philippine Air Force acquired 23 F-5A and B models in 1965, which together with remanufactured Vought F-8 Crusaders eventually replaced the Philippine F-86 Sabres in the air defence and ground attack roles.
The F-5C is also the only first-generation F-5 to have flown in combat in American markings: the USAF never took the F-5E Tiger II into combat, and its role in the US inventory was always that of an aggressor in dissimilar air combat training.