【F5】操作靈活、善於纏鬥，空戰表現優於米格-21的“自由戰士”——F-5系列戰鬥機

On July 13, 1977, Somalia launched a war of aggression against Ethiopia. This war was called the Ogaden War . It was in this war that the F-5E and the MiG-21 met fate. At that time , there were 29 of the Somali Air Force. For the MiG-21 and 25 MiG-17 , you must know that Ethiopia was in a period of civil strife. Naturally, it was beaten by Somalia at the beginning of the war . When the Ethiopian government finally made a decision after being beaten passively for two weeks. At the time of the reaction, the large force was assembled, but it still took several weeks. At this time , the few Ogaden troops who were fighting could only fight to the death. They had less than 10 F-5Es at that time, but they were the best team in the following war. Troops In this battle, the F-5E showed a crushing advantage against the MiG-21. In a battle, the pilot Rajs. Teffner flew the F-5E and three other F-5Es against eight enemy planes , including four MiG-21s and four MiG-17s . It shot down 4 of the MiG fighters and did not cause much damage. In the following battles, the F-5E won valuable time for Ethiopia through air battles , and finally allowed the Ethiopian army to keep Somalia in the case of early losses. The army was all expelled from the country and won the war. As far as the aircraft is concerned, the MiG-21 is a delta wing, which has good high- altitude and high-speed performance. Although the F-5 fighter has a slow speed, it has good low-altitude maneuverability , flexible operation, good fighting performance, and better air combat performance. F- 5 fighter is a supersonic fighter F-5 fighter developed by Northrop Corporation in the 1950s and 1960s. It is cheap, easy to maintain, has good performance , and has short take-off and landing performance . It first flew on July 30, 1959. 1962 Equipped with the U.S. military, the aircraft has been sold to 21 countries and regions around the world. In international arms transactions, it has formed a "three-pronged" situation with the French Mirage III and the Soviet MiG-21 in the export of military aircraft . In the 1960s, the United States proposed a "military support plan" to want Made a batch of cheap planes and sold them to their allies . Among the many companies that participated in the competition, Northrop Corporation of the United States finally stood out and set out to develop the F-5A fighter jet . The operational performance of the F-5A is very good and the price is low. Its flight cost It is only 756,000 US dollars and it has good low-altitude flight stability and short take-off and landing performance . Production and maintenance are relatively easy. As soon as the aircraft was launched , it was welcomed by many countries because of its cost-effectiveness. The French Mirage III fighter, the Soviet MiG-21 Fighter aircraft together occupy the entire market of military aircraft exports. The F-5 fighter jet has a very beautiful appearance. It adopts a single-seat twin-engine, a slender and sharp nose, and no expensive radar is installed . The aircraft is clean and tidy, and the stable circling performance during the test flight is particularly good, because the wing of the aircraft adopts a slatted wing layout, which was rare at that time, which makes up for the lack of a small wing area. Instrument, navigation system, compass , and IFF, etc. The later improved version is equipped with a radar with a detection range of 33 kilometers. The F-5 is 14.38 meters long, 4.01 meters high, 7.7 meters wingspan, and has a wing area of ​​15.79 square meters . Empty weight 4410 kg The maximum take - off weight is 9387 kg. The practical ceiling of the aircraft is 15390 meters. The maximum speed is Mach 1.4. The maximum range with auxiliary fuel tanks is 2280 kilometers. The combat radius is 320 kilometers . There are 5 external hardpoints under the wing of the body, which can be attached to auxiliary fuel tanks and various bombs. Later modifications can be used to launch young animal air-to-surface missiles. The maximum bomb load is 2800 kg. At that time, the aircraft was divided into two types , one is a single seat The other is a two-seat trainer. The two-seat trainer was later renamed the F-5B . These two models are the F-5A/B, the predecessor of the F-5E and F-5F, although they have been welcomed by the military aircraft export market. But its combat effectiveness is much inferior to the Soviet MiG-21 fighter, so in order to enhance its combat effectiveness and compete with the Soviet MiG-21 fighter for the market , Northrop has improved it, and the improved aircraft is numbered as F-5E/ F is nicknamed "Tiger", where the F-5F is a two-seat trainer. The F-5E has been upgraded on the basis of the F-5A, increasing the wing area , using a double front landing gear , and increasing the thrust of the engine to make it take off. The performance has been improved by 30%. In addition, its fuselage is 1.2 meters longer than the original . On the basis of retaining the original fire control system, an M39 cannon has been removed . The improved F-5E has a fuselage length of 14.45 meters. The height of the fuselage and wingspan are 4.06 meters and 8.13 meters respectively, the maximum load is 3.18 tons, the maximum bomb load is 2.8 tons , the maximum flight speed can reach 1741 kilometers per hour, and the combat radius can reach 220 ~1060 kilometers . The running distance and landing roll distance are 610 meters and 762 meters respectively. It is also equipped with two turbojet engines and two revolving guns with 280 rounds of ammunition each. It is also equipped with two sidewinders close-quarters combat on the wingtip pylons. Missile It has a total of 5 hanging points , which can be attached to auxiliary fuel tanks, missiles, bombs, rocket launchers, etc. In order to reduce the price, its electronic equipment is relatively simple , including only basic equipment such as fire control radar, optical sight, navigation system, etc. Although F- The 5E is a low-end fighter , but its combat performance is not inferior to other fighters of the same period because it is mainly used to compete with the Soviet MiG-21 fighter in the market . Then we will compare the two. Let 's talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the F-5E. The rate of climb of the F-5E is slightly lower than that of the MiG-21 , but its hovering performance is much better than that of the MiG-21. In addition, its take-off and landing roll distance is also significantly lower than that of the MiG. In addition , the -21 has more electronic equipment than the MiG-21 , and its nose equipment compartment has a larger space to install various electronic equipment , which is also beyond the reach of the MiG -21. In addition , the propulsion system of the F-5E in actual flight is more suitable for the requirements of the mobile combat area than the MiG-21. The nose of the F-5E is drooping, and the cockpit field of view is also much wider than that of the MiG-21. Its overall size is smaller and The cleaning of the engine exhaust greatly reduces its visual target in combat, making it difficult for the enemy to detect. In addition, although its size is small , its cockpit has fully taken into account the comfort of the pilot . The cockpit is relatively spacious and the instrumentation The layout is also very comfortable, allowing the pilot to focus more on combat, while the MiG-21 is the opposite , with a very cramped cockpit. The layout of the disk is not reasonable enough, it is easy to make the pilot feel fatigued when driving, and as a light fighter, it has a large combat radius, which is also very rare. In this aspect alone, it can kill the MiG -21 and F -21 in seconds. The 5E can also add a refueling probe and a refueling nozzle on the upper right of the nose. Through KC130 and KC135 tankers , the air refueling time is only 7 minutes. This performance allows its combat radius under various missions to be increased to 37%~69% and its mounting capacity is amazing. It can be said that it is far more than the MiG-21 . The most important thing is that its maintenance is also very simple for some underdeveloped countries. We mentioned earlier that there are two types of F-5. Model Among them, the F-5F is used as a trainer. It adds a seat on the basis of the F-5E, so its fuselage is increased by 1.04 meters. The other configurations are basically the same as the F-5E. Although the F-5E looks quite perfect , it also exists. The fatal flaw of the F-5E's cannons is that they are located on the upper surface of the nose, so that the smoke from the muzzle can seriously obstruct the pilot's field of vision when firing during the day. When firing at night, the muzzle flame can even cause the pilot to temporarily lose sight. But this defect It is not fatal. Its most fatal flaw is that the ejection seat F-5E/F is equipped with a late - stage ejection seat independently developed by Northrop. After the country purchased the F-5E/F, the first step to do is to improve its seats, and many fighter accidents happened precisely because the seats were not upgraded. The service life of the F-5 is also very important, which is why the accident rate of the F-5E/F in the US military is much lower. Many countries are very satisfied with the performance of the F-5 fighter , including Thailand, South Korea, Greece , Norway and other more than ten countries. Purchase Northrop produced a total of 1,870 F-5 series fighters. Canada , Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and other countries also authorized the production of more than 770 aircraft. With the passage of time, the F-5E/F also entered the "heroic twilight" At present, the F-5E/F fighter jets serving in various countries have all exceeded the service life of fighter jets, and they are also being retired in various countries . Well, today 's content is here , please continue to pay attention to us , you can watch the latest videos and browse the past. Wonderful issue, please leave a message in the comment area , see you in the next issue