Northrop F-5C Skoshi Tiger

By the mid-1960s the F-5 was selling well to allies through the Military Assistance Program, yet the US Air Force had not bought it for itself: only a few aircraft flew with the 4441st Combat Crew Training Squadron at Williams AFB, Arizona, and solely to train foreign personnel. Critics abroad asked why they should buy an aircraft the United States did not want. To settle the question, and at the same time answer a USAF request for more assets in theatre, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered a force of F-5As sent to Southeast Asia for a combat evaluation. The F-5C was born of that order: not a factory development, but an F-5A adapted to prove in a real war what the type was worth.

Before going to war the aircraft was tested at the Air Proving Ground Center at Eglin AFB, Florida, from 15 April to 15 July 1965 under Project Sparrow Hawk, against the F-4, F-100 and A-4. One airframe was lost there through pilot error on 24 June. The F-5 proved equal to the F-100 and A-4 in every respect except range and endurance, a shortfall to be offset by air refuelling.

On 22 July 1965 Tactical Air Command organised the 4503rd Tactical Fighter Squadron (Provisional) at Williams AFB with twelve F-5As and pilots and maintenance personnel from the USAF Tactical Air Warfare Center. At Northrop's Palmdale plant the aircraft received a removable, non-retractable air-refuelling probe on the left side; about 41 kg (90 lb) of external armour plates under the cockpit and engine; updated avionics and ordnance delivery systems; and jettisonable stores pylons. So modified, they were redesignated F-5C. German Wikipedia adds that F-5C was a reserved designation never used officially and applied informally to these twelve aircraft. An intense, condensed training programme began at Williams on 1 August and ran until late October: from the squadron's formation through training and modifications, the whole effort was put together in 88 days.

The 4503rd left Williams on 22 October 1965 and reached Bien Hoa Air Base four days later, flying its first combat sorties that same day under the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing. Because the F-5 carried much the same basic load as the F-100 but had shorter legs, typical missions were in-country close support 64 to 80 km (40-50 miles) from Bien Hoa, which let the squadron rack up sorties quickly: more than 1,400 in its first 60 days. On 16 December 1965 one aircraft went down after taking heavy ground fire on a close air support mission; its pilot, Major Joe Baggett, was killed when his ejection seat malfunctioned.

On 1 January 1966 the squadron moved to Da Nang. Besides short in-country missions it began striking targets in Laos and, once the bombing halt of December 1965 to January 1966 ended, North Vietnam as well. It escorted electronic surveillance aircraft along the Chinese-Laotian border and flew with F-105s against Red River supply bases in north-west Vietnam. Scheduled to last roughly four months, the evaluation ended on 9 March 1966 and was declared a success: the F-5 was rated as capable a ground-attacker as the F-100, albeit with shorter range. English Wikipedia nonetheless calls the programme more a political gesture to aid exports than a serious consideration of the type for US service, a statement flagged there as disputed. Figures for the period differ between sources: more than 2,600 sorties and one combat loss according to Wikipedia and AvGeekery; more than 3,500 sorties and two combat losses according to Warbirds Resource Group.

Instead of returning home, the unit stayed on as part of the authorised build-up of US forces in Southeast Asia. The 4503rd had officially remained at Williams until 10 March 1966; on 8 April it was discontinued and its personnel and equipment formed the 10th Fighter Squadron, Commando, organised that day at Bien Hoa under the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing. Its strength rose to 17 aircraft according to Wikipedia and Warbirds Resource Group, or 18 according to the unit history. The squadron flew some 7,300 sorties (more than 7,000 operational missions in the unit history) and earned a Presidential Unit Citation and a Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm. Losses do not tally either: six aircraft to enemy fire in the squadron history and eight combat losses per AvGeekery, while English Wikipedia counts nine aircraft lost across the 4503rd and the 10th FSC, seven to ground fire and two to operational causes.

From October 1966 the squadron trained Republic of Vietnam Air Force personnel to fly and maintain the F-5. The 10th FCS was inactivated on 17 April 1967 and its aircraft went to the 522nd Fighter Squadron of the South Vietnamese 23rd Tactical Wing at Bien Hoa, although some personnel stayed to continue training and missions were still flown into May; AvGeekery dates the South Vietnamese takeover of all F-5 operations to 19 June 1967, and English Wikipedia to June 1967. Among the aircraft were some of the original Skoshi Tiger F-5Cs. South Vietnam's president had asked for F-4 Phantoms, but his air force flew only ground support, with A-1 Skyraiders and A-37 Dragonflies, and faced no enemy aircraft over the South, so the F-5 was enough. The 522nd, South Vietnam's first jet unit, flew the inherited F-5Cs alongside F-5A/Bs and RF-5As; a photograph shows one of its F-5Cs at Bien Hoa in 1971.

The F-5C was the only F-5 the USAF took into combat: the F-5E Tiger II fought with allied air forces but never with the US Air Force. According to AvGeekery, the "Tiger II" name of later versions almost certainly derives from this project, and German Wikipedia credits the fighting in Vietnam with giving the Freedom Fighter its "Tiger" nickname. The intended commercial effect also came: following Skoshi Tiger, the Philippine Air Force acquired 23 F-5As and F-5Bs in 1965.