The F-5 is 60 years old. Did Iran exploit an old plane during the war? | news

The American network NBC News revealed that more than 100 American targets – in 11 countries during the war with Iran – were subjected to focused attacks, in which an Iranian F-5 fighter jet participated, which was gifted by Washington to Tehran during the Cold War and before the Islamic Revolution in the country.

The network – based on three American officials, two congressional aides, and another person familiar with the matter – spoke of severe damage to American targets during the first campaign, much worse than was acknowledged.

Mystery over Buhring’s rule

In its report, the network focused on information related to the participation of an Iranian Northrop F5 fighter jet in a raid on the American Buhring base in Kuwait, which may represent the first direct attack by an enemy fighter plane on an American facility protected by multi-layered air defense systems in many years.

Camp Buehring is located in northern Kuwait, a few hundred kilometers west of Iran. This distance puts the target outside the range of F-5 aircraft operating from known Iranian bases in the region, unless external fuel tanks are used or the attack is planned as a one-way mission.

The network’s report says that it is not clear how an Iranian fighter plane was able to successfully reach its target without being detected and stopped, suggesting that the strike occurred in very specific circumstances, perhaps by exploiting the density of air defenses as a result of missile and drone attacks in the first days of the war.

However, the network stated that the air strike that was reported could not be immediately ruled out, as it likely occurred in conjunction with other similar incidents in the same time period.

Light, maneuverable and effective

The F-5 is an American light, multi-role fighter aircraft, manufactured by Northrop at the end of the 1950s and entered service in the early 1960s.

The F-5 is one of the most famous aircraft that was designed to be light, low-cost and easy to maintain compared to heavy aircraft, and is widely used in combat missions, training and ground attack.

The aircraft was developed during the Cold War to be:

• Relatively cheap compared to F4 Phantom aircraft.
• Easy to operate for countries allied with the United States.
• Effective in close air combat and light combat missions.

The aircraft has good maneuverability and armament that includes:

• Internal machine guns.
• Air-to-air missiles.
• Conventional bombs and surface-to-air missiles.

Huge losses

The aircraft has been used in more than 30 countries in the world, including Brazil, Switzerland, and Taiwan, in addition to Iran, which operates upgraded versions to this day, or derivative models such as the Hesa ​​Saeqeh aircraft.

Overall, this aircraft cannot survive in a modern, high-threat air defense environment, although its small size still poses a problem, as it complicates its targeting by air defense systems.

Whether or not its actual participation in the attack on American targets is confirmed, this does not obscure the cost of the losses that the network reported during the raids on operational facilities, logistical centers and vital systems.

According to the American Enterprise Center’s assessment on which the network was based, the cost of repairing this damaged infrastructure could exceed $5 billion. However, the validity of this data cannot be independently verified, and the US War Department has not issued any statement regarding it.