F-5 Tiger II: El Caza de Combate de la Fuerza Aérea Mexicana 🇲🇽
Video from the channel Armapedia about Northrop F-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 15:03. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Documentary from the Armapedia channel on the Northrop F-5, from the original Freedom Fighter to the F-5E/F Tiger II, with particular attention to its service in the Mexican Air Force. It reviews its development, performance, armament and some of the conflicts it took part in.
Historical context
The origin lies in the mid-1950s in Northrop's N-156 project, a cheap, easy-to-maintain fighter conceived first for the US Navy's escort carriers and later for allies with fewer resources. After three prototypes were ordered in 1958, the N-156F flew in 1959 and exceeded the speed of sound on that first flight. In 1962 the Kennedy administration revived the idea of an export fighter and the aircraft was renamed F-5. It performed adequately in Vietnam, though with limitations: no radar and inferior performance compared with other fighters of the era. In 1970 Northrop won the competition for a new export fighter with a much-improved version, the F-5E Tiger II, which first flew in 1972 and entered service in 1975, alongside the two-seat F-5F.
Key facts
The Tiger II is powered by two General Electric J85-GE-21B turbojets, reaches Mach 1.7 and carries two 20 mm M39A2 cannons, AIM-9 Sidewinder and AGM-65 Maverick missiles; its radars were successively the AN/APQ-153, the AN/APQ-159 and the AN/APG-69. In 1982 Mexico received ten F-5Es and two F-5Fs for the 401st Air Squadron, based at Santa Lucía. The video recalls the collision with three T-33s during the 1995 parade and the arrival in 2018 of Lieutenant Karen Velázquez, the squadron's first female pilot. Tiger II production ended in 1989.