F-5 Glossary: Terms and Meanings | F-5 Enthusiast Page

Adversary: An aircraft and pilot that play the enemy in training, also called "red air." The F-5 has flown this role for the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
Aggressor: The Air Force term for an adversary unit or aircraft. Units such as the 26th Aggressor Squadron flew F-5Es.
BuNo (Bureau Number): The serial number the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps assign to an aircraft. Ex-Swiss F-5Ns received BuNos such as 761550.
CF-5 and NF-5: Canadair-built Freedom Fighters: CF-5A and CF-5D for Canada, NF-5 for the Netherlands. 240 came off the Montreal line.
Dissimilar air combat training: Practice dogfights against a different aircraft type, so pilots learn to fight something that does not fly like their own jet.
F-5EM and F-5FM: Brazil's upgraded Tiger IIs, rebuilt by Embraer and AEL Sistemas with new radar, cockpit displays and a refueling probe.
F-5N: A Navy and Marine Corps adversary F-5 rebuilt from a former Swiss Air Force F-5E.
F-5S and F-5T: Singapore's upgraded F-5E and F-5F, with Grifo-F radar and a glass cockpit. Operational from 1998 until 2015.
F-20 Tigershark: Northrop's privately funded F-5 successor, first called the F-5G: one F404 engine and a real radar. It first flew in 1982; three were built and none were sold.
FrankenTiger: Nickname for three two-seat F-5Fs the Navy built from old Navy F-5F noses and tails joined to former Swiss center sections.
Freedom Fighter: The name of the early F-5 family: the single-seat F-5A and two-seat F-5B.
Hürjet: The supersonic jet trainer built by Turkish Aerospace that is replacing the F-5 with the Turkish Stars and at Spain's fighter school.
J85: The small General Electric turbojet that powers the F-5. The Tiger II used the more powerful J85-21.
Jegongho: "Air Tiger": the name of the KF-5E and KF-5F, the Tiger IIs built under licence by Korean Air from 1982 to 1986.
Kowsar: An Iranian fighter derived from the F-5, called fully homemade by Iranian media; outside analysts see it as a reworked F-5F with new avionics.
LERX (leading-edge extension): The narrow extension of the wing root forward along the fuselage. The Tiger II has larger ones than the F-5A, which helps tell the families apart. The T-38 trainer has none, so it is also the quickest way to tell a T-38 from a two-seat F-5.
Maneuvering flaps: Wing flaps that move during combat maneuvers to improve turning. They were one of the Tiger II changes.
Peace Llama: The program under which Chile bought 15 F-5Es and 3 F-5Fs, the first arriving in July 1976.
Peace Tiger: Taiwan's program to build the F-5E and F-5F at home with Northrop, from 1973 until the last aircraft left the line in 1986.
Reverse Foreign Military Sales: NAVAIR's term for the program in which the U.S. Navy bought F-5s back from Switzerland, which had originally bought them from the United States.
Saeqeh: Iran's twin-tailed fighter developed from the F-5 after the country was cut off from American suppliers.
Serial number: The identity number painted on an aircraft. It is the most reliable way to link a photo to a specific airframe record.
SF-5: The Spanish designation for CASA-built Freedom Fighters: SF-5A, SF-5B and the SRF-5A reconnaissance version.
Tail code: Letters on the tail that identify a unit or base. Useful clues, but schemes can be repainted, so confirm with a serial.
Tiger III (Tigre III): The name Chile and Morocco gave their upgraded F-5Es, with new radar, cockpit and missiles.
Tigereye and Tigergazer: RF-5E reconnaissance Tiger IIs with a reshaped camera nose. Singapore converted its own as Tigereyes; Taiwan flew Tigergazers.
Tiger II: The name of the improved F-5 family: the single-seat F-5E and two-seat F-5F, and later the F-5N.
Turkish Stars: Turkey's national display team, one of the few flying supersonic jets: Canadair-built NF-5s from Konya.
Two-seater: A trainer version with tandem cockpits under one long canopy: the F-5B in the early family and the F-5F in the Tiger II family.

F-5 glossary