General Background

The Northrop F-5 tactical fighter was designed as an extremely maneuverable, supersonic fighter with a high rate of reliability at a low operating cost. The F-5 first flew on July 30, 1959 with the first customer delivery in 1964. The last of more than 2,600 F-5’s was produced in 1989 and about two-thirds of these are still in service with 26 countries more than 4 decades later. The F-5 was manufactured by Northrop Grumman and under license in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.

The Aircraft

In January 1974 the IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) received 28 F-5Fs with the total eventually rising to 166 F-5F/Es. During the war with Iraq the F-5s flew air-to-ground sorties and air-to-air sorties with MiG and Sukhoi aircraft of the day as well as Mirage F-1 and Super Etandard. There were 10 F-5Es with the 41st TFW located at the 4th Tactical Air Base aka Vahdati. F-5E 3-7301 is the oldest F-5E in Iran and was put back in service after 15 years in storage.