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History

South Vietnam's F-5s

From the Skoshi Tiger handover in 1967 to the fall of Saigon, and the captured jets that changed sides.

A camouflaged F-5A in a sandbagged revetment at a jungle airbase, with bombs on a trailer
Original illustration How a 1960s F-5A might have looked in its revetment at a jungle-edge base. Artwork made for this site, not a photo of a real South Vietnamese jet.
First F-5sApril 1967
Total used260+
Last flightsApril 1975

South Vietnam flew more F-5s than almost anyone, for eight years, and then lost them all in a few weeks. Some ended up fighting for the other side.

Inheriting the Skoshi Tigers

When the U.S. Air Force decided not to keep the F-5 after its Skoshi Tiger combat test, it handed the 10th Fighter Commando Squadron's jets to the South Vietnamese Air Force's 522nd Fighter Squadron in April 1967. They were the first of more than 260 F-5s that air force would use.[1]

Tigers arrive in a hurry

In 1972 the United States asked Taiwan to pass 50 of its F-5As and F-5Bs to South Vietnam, promising Taiwan the new F-5E in return.[5] South Vietnam then received F-5E Tiger IIs too. One of them, 73-00878, joined the 63rd Tactical Wing at Bien Hoa in June 1974 and had flown just 153 and a half hours when it was captured in April 1975.[3]

The palace raid

On 8 April 1975 a South Vietnamese F-5 flown by a Lieutenant Trung dropped bombs on Independence Palace in Saigon, the president's own residence. Trung then went over to the North. Later that month he helped train North Vietnamese pilots on captured jets, and on 28 April he took part in an air raid on Tan Son Nhut airbase that pushed the last South Vietnamese aircraft to flee to Thailand.[2]

An F-5 displayed in Ho Chi Minh City is presented as his aircraft. History records it as an F-5E, but the jet on show appears to be an F-5A, so either the record or the display is wrong.[2] It is a good reminder of why we check the serial before trusting a museum sign.

Flying for the other side

Many South Vietnamese F-5s were captured when the war ended in April 1975.[3] The new Vietnamese air force put some of them to use, and as late as 1987 FlightGlobal still credited it with as many as 50 F-5A, F-5B and F-5E aircraft.[4]

Last updated

Sources

  1. Skoshi Tiger handover and VNAF F-5 totals, Vietnam Air Losses
  2. Why did a South Vietnamese fighter bomb the presidential palace?, The Aviationist (2025)
  3. Markings for F-5E 1/48 (F-5E 73-00878 history), Eduard Info (2024)
  4. Vietnam could bring Tigers back into service, We Are The Mighty (citing FlightGlobal)
  5. Taiwan's F-5s and the 1972 transfer, NOWnews (Chinese)
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