USN Still Flies the F-5?

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MIflyer

1st Lieutenant
6,222
11,910
May 30, 2011
Cape Canaveral
From Avweb:

Apparently so, although they now have one less, losing an F-5N off of Key West yesterday. Pilot punched out and was rescued.

Screenshot 2023-06-01 at 08-07-11 F-5N_of_VFC-111_at_NAS_Key_West_in_November_2014-1.jpg.webp ...png
 
It seems to me that I recently read where the USN is buying the balance of the Swiss AF F-5's. > I do not recall the quantity but is around 40 or so.
 
F-5s remain USN - USMC adversaries (USAF has aggressors) because they're paid for, fairly cheap to maintain, and upgradeable. Besides that, they're just a whole lotta fun to fly.

One of my USN friends established Top Gun (damn autocorrect won't allow the proper one-word variety.). He still says: give him 100 F-5s with pilots flying 30-40 hrs/month, a radar missile and ECM support, and he could own a desired block of airspace.
 
I am not sure how many nations still fly the F-5. Jordan still has a bunch, including some they got from Europe second hand. S Korea had them too; a friend of mine once entertained himself by out-turning them with his B-52. I wonder how many of them are using Fuzzbusters, like that Red Flag pilot.

I guess Canada no longer has them, and there is a rather negative video about the CF-5 on Youtube. I'd guess that Mexico probably still has them.
 
Maybe Iran as well?
Iran claimed to be building new ones, but that may have been simply overhauling and upgrading their old ones. In fact one guy I know showed a picture of what supposedly was one of the new Iranian F-5's but in reality it clearly was a photo of a USAF Skoshi Tiger F-5A in Vietnam, complete with an F-100 parked in a revetment behind it.
 

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