Global War Birds: March 2012

Northrop F-5 Tiger

Northrop F-5 is widely used light supersonic fighter aircraft.

The F-5 is suitable for various types of ground-support and aerial intercept missions.

The F-5 is a lightweight, easy-to-fly, simple-to-maintain, and (relatively) cheap fighter.

The F-5 was originally designed as a daytime, air-to-air fighter,

but it has also been extensively used as a ground-attack aircraft.

General characteristics / Specifications
Crew: 1
Length: 47 ft 4¾ in (14.45 m)
Wingspan: 26 ft 8 in (8.13 m)
Height: 13 ft 4½ in (4.08 m)
Wing area: 186 ft² (17.28 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 65A004.8 root, NACA 64A004.8 tip
Empty weight: 9,558 lb (4,349 kg)
Loaded weight: 15,745 lb (7,157 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 24,722 lb (11,214 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × General Electric J85-GE-21B turbojet
Dry thrust: 3,500 lbf (15.5 kN) each
Thrust with afterburner: 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN) each
* Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0200
Drag area: 3.4 ft² (0.32 m²)
Aspect ratio: 3.86
Internal fuel: 677 US gal (2,563 L)
External fuel: 275 US gal (1,040 L) per tank in up to 3 tanks

Performance
Maximum speed: 917 kn (1,060 mph, 1,700 km/h, Mach 1.6)
Range: 760 nmi (870 mi, 1,405 km)
Ferry range: 2,010 nmi (2,310 mi, 3,700 km)
Service ceiling: 51,800 ft (15,800 m)
Rate of climb: 34,400 ft/min (175 m/s)
Lift-to-drag ratio: 10.0

Armament
Guns: 2× 20 mm (0.787 in) M39A2 Revolver cannons in the nose, 280 rounds/gun
Hardpoints: 7 total (3× wet): 2× wing-tip AAM launch rails, 4× under-wing & 1× under-fuselage pylon stations with a capacity of 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of:

Rockets:
2× LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19× /7× Hydra 70 mm rockets, respectively); or
2× LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19× CRV7 70 mm rockets); or
2× LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4× Zuni 127 mm rockets); or
2× Matra rocket pods (each with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets)

Missiles:
4× AIM-9 Sidewinders or 4× AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile
2× AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missiles
Bombs: A variety of air-to-ground ordnance such as the Mark 80 series of unguided bombs (including 3 kg and 14 kg practice bombs), CBU-24/49/52/58 cluster bomb munitions, napalm bomb canisters and M129 Leaflet bomb, and laser guided bombs of Paveway family.
Others: up to 3× 150/275 US gallon Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time.

Avionics
Emerson Electric AN/APQ-153 radar on early batch of F-5E
Emerson Electric AN/APQ-159 radar on later production F-5E
AN/AVQ-27 Laser Target Designator Set (LTDS), for F-5B and F-5F only.