Northrop F-5E Tiger II
The classic lightweight fighter that spent decades playing the enemy in air combat training.
- Very small profile
- Two 20 mm cannons
- Cheap to operate
- Aggressor trainer
Specification
- Origin
- United States
- Manufacturer
- Northrop
- Role
- Multirole
- Generation
- 3
- Introduced
- 1972
- Combat type
- Air
- Spawn code
- f5etiger2
On the server
The F-5E Tiger II entered service in 1972 as a cheap, simple export fighter, and ended up outliving that role entirely. Because its size and performance loosely resemble Soviet light fighters, air forces around the world kept it as an aggressor aircraft for dissimilar combat training, painting it in enemy colours and flying it against far more expensive machines. It is genuinely small, hard to spot at range, and carries two 20 mm cannons in the nose. On MCS that small silhouette matters more than any statistic. Opponents lose visual contact with it in a turning fight, which buys the time needed to reverse a position. Against modern radar it has no answer at distance and its thrust is modest, so it must fight close. Recommended for pilots who want to prove that a cheap old airframe still bites in a knife fight.