Northrop F-5 SF-5A

On 11 January 1965 the Spanish Air Ministry decided to buy 70 Northrop F-5 aircraft to replace its F-86 Sabre fighters and T-33 trainers. They were to be built under licence at the CASA factory in Getafe under the designation SF-5, and the contract, valued at 3,877 million pesetas, originally covered 36 single-seat F-5As and 34 two-seat F-5Bs. It was later amended so that 18 of those single-seaters would be built as RF-5A reconnaissance aircraft (the SRF-5A). The single-seat fighter that remained in the order is the SF-5A.

The Spanish Air Force received 18 SF-5As, built between 1969 and 1971 with construction numbers 2035 to 2052, between the SF-5B two-seaters (2001 to 2034) and the SRF-5A reconnaissance aircraft (2053 to 2070). They received the Spanish designation C.9, from the fighter series, and later A.9, when the type moved to the ground-attack category; it was a single-seat version dedicated to fighter and attack missions.

The first deliveries of the programme were two-seaters: on 7 January 1970 the first five F-5Bs arrived at Morón de la Frontera, followed by five more the next day, for the newly formed 202 Squadron; the single-seaters came later. 202 Squadron was equipped with SF-5As and SF-5Bs, while 204 Squadron, formed in September 1970, received the SRF-5A reconnaissance aircraft. In 1971 the two squadrons were reorganised into Ala 21 at Morón. The last of the 70 airframes was received on 11 April 1972.

As tension with Morocco grew in the last years of the Franco regime, the Spanish F-5s were deployed to Gando Air Base on Gran Canaria for the conflict in the Spanish Sahara. The deployment became permanent from 1974 and was formalised in 1976: two F-5Bs and all F-5As with even registrations were assigned to 464 Squadron of Ala 46. On 11 August 1978 the SF-5s in the Canaries completed their first five thousand flight hours. Aircraft of all three versions returned to Morón in the early 1980s, when they were replaced by Mirage F1s (sources differ: May 1981 according to one, 1982 according to others). During this period the designation of the single-seaters changed from C.9 (fighter) to A.9 (attack).

The record of SF-5A C.9-048 (construction number 2048) sums up the type's career. According to the published history of this airframe, it entered service in November 1977 with 211 Squadron under the call sign 211-48 and the following year moved to 464 Squadron at Gando as 464-48. In 1979 it was redesignated A.9-048; in 1982 it returned to Morón with 212 Squadron (call sign 212-48) until September 1987, when it joined Ala 21 as 21-09. In 1996 it was placed in storage at Talavera la Real and in 1999 it was sent to Gando to be preserved as a monument with its former serial C.9-048 and the call sign 464-48.

In 1989 an F-5B crashed after the structural failure of a wing; the whole fleet was grounded while crews searched for signs of material fatigue, and many F-5s were retired. The last operational F-5 flight at Morón took place on 5 October 1992, and four days later a formation of four aircraft took the base's last F-5s to Talavera. F-5s had logged 107,779.46 flight hours at Morón. The surviving single-seaters, SF-5A and SRF-5A, were transferred in 1995 to Ala 23 at Talavera la Real together with some retired airframes used for spare parts. The SF-5As are now retired: only the modernised two-seaters remain in service.

The Museo del Aire at Cuatro Vientos preserves A.9-050, restored in 2016 in the three-tone tactical camouflage (sand, brown and green) and the markings of Ala 21, with which it served at Morón between 1971 and 1992.