THE F-5E TIGER II A CAT FOR DOGFIGHTING

[Music] [Music] tiger a powerful member of the cat family characterized as being fast agile and hard to see the Northrup f5e tiger 2 responsive agile hard to see fast and maneuverable aerial combat a fight between two or more opposing aircraft a dog fight fought at Close Quarters and consisting of hard turning hard maneuvering engagements [Music] aerial combat or dog fighting had its origin in World War I it evolved from the application of the machine gun interruptor gear a device that allowed Pilots to fire their guns through the propellers of their aircraft throughout the 1920s and 30s military aircraft performance speed and design all began to improve in World War II with its total commitment to air power the military fighter came into its own as a truly versatile high-speed formidable weapon a weapon that was used to control the skies in strategically important areas all [Music] [Music] in 1944 the jet age was born with the mmid 262 with the jet came Speed and Performance never before reached as a new era in tactical fighter capability emerged Korea a war that was more than a place of conflict for the jet fighter it became a Proving Ground a place for testing high-speed jet aircraft as tactical fighter planes a place for comparing the design Firepower and maneuverability of our fighter aircraft against those of a major antagonist and a place to prove that aircraft designed and dedicated to dog fighting are the only kind of Fighters capable of matching the performance of similarly designed aircraft but after Korea Western concepts of aerial Warfare in a nuclear environment began to change military strategists saw future wars being fought with icbms and long range bombers in the fighter field American designers turn from small highly maneuverable dedicated dog fighters equipped with guns and close-in missiles to larger faster higher flying fighter interceptors armed only with longrange missiles enemy aircraft would be identified by long range radar and the push button pilot would launch a missile at an enemy he never saw this concept of push button Warfare led to the design and production of the so-called standoff tactical fighter and when the Navy's Prime dog Fighter the f8 Crusader was replaced by an aircraft with no guns the dog fighter became a Vanishing species but then came the war in Southeast Asia and almost overnight us tactical fighter strategy became obsolete large missile only aircraft with their Crews trained in standoff techniques proved inadequate an inadequacy reflected in unacceptable kill ratios suddenly Pilots were required to visually confirm all boogies identified by radar before they could be engaged this meant closing to within a mile before firing the enemy pilots in their small highly maneuverable aircraft designed for dog fighting were consistently outt turning and out fighting our Pilots our standoff weapons designed for accuracy at longer ranges were having to be fired in close too close they were missing their targets a decade of standoff technology and training required immediate reappraisal at the Air Force fighter weapons school a program of dissimilar air combat tactics was begun for the first time in the Tactical Air Command f16s flew training missions against different types of aircraft f4s and f100s in the Navy a fighter weapons school was established and nicknamed Top Gun the school began teaching Naval fighter Crews Advanced Air Combat maneuvering tactics in the Navy's dissimilar aircraft program the subsonic A4 small and maneuverable simulated the MiG 17 for the fleet's F4 and f8 Pilots this training paid off the Navy's first aces in the southeast Asia War were Top Gun graduates as more and more air Crews graduated and returned to the fleet the Navy's kill ratio against enemy Fighters Rose significantly today the Air Force and the Navy continue to have strong dissimilar training programs the instructors are the service's best fighter pilots most are battle experienced in aerial combat the adversary aircraft for this realistic training are high performance Frontline tactical Fighters they are small fast and agile and their appearance performance and radar signatures are like those of the mig21 the dog fights simulate aerial combat up to the point of actual firing of live weapons the aircraft that has the performance to fill the demands of dissimilar training is the Northrup f5e tiger 2 outstanding dog fight performance was the goal of the f5e design team using the latest computer rated technology the tiger 2's performance and structural integrity was theoretically proven before the final design was released subsequent fatigue tests verified the F5 structural strength and enabled the aircraft service life to double with its perform performance superiority integrated with its operational capabilities the f5e became a fighter pilots aircraft the F5 is an extremely agile high performance lightweight fighter and it's Dependable time and again we've flown these aircraft to their limits during combat I like a fighter that can turn and in the tiger 2 I've got it with the Leading Edge extensions and the maneuvering flaps I can make tighter turns at higher speeds tighter turns especially the ability to turn inside his opponent enable the tiger 2 pilot to fight where his aircraft performs best the primary combat region of the air combat Arena even in those cases when the opponent has Mach 2 capability the hard maneuvering required to gain the position of advantage or to maintain visual contact causes rapid deceleration and altitude loss into the primary region where close engagement occurs since a fighter Pilot's goal is to achieve a quick safe kill the tiger 2 pilot can use his aircraft's performance size and smokeless engines to gain the initial Advantage combat records show that the aircraft with this Advantage when flown by an experienced well-trained pilot normally retains that ad Vantage throughout the fight I can usually see my opponent before he sees me and that gives me the initial Advantage then I'll have about 5 Seconds to determine what I'm up against aircraft Armament and energy State his and mine and who has the positional Advantage if I do and I feel I'm more maneuverable then I'll force him into a turning fight but if he has the advantage then I'll keep my energy up and use the vertical whether the fight proceeds vertically or horizontally a feature that contributes greatly to the dog fighting ability of the f5e is the accuracy of its Fire Control System this system accomplishes several tasks Target detection and range tracking gun aiming and launch computation for missiles a dogfight switch provides immediate missiles or gun Choice with automatic Target lock on if the minimum launch range is exceeded before the missile can be fired a touch of the dogfight button automatically places the system in the airto aair guns mode in this mode the firing distance is recomputed for the 2 20 mm cannon firing Solutions whether against a training Dart or an enemy aircraft remain the same [Music] standard snap shooting and tracking modes enable tiger 2 Pilots to fly equally well against every type of maneuvering or non-maneuvering Target as the most widely deployed tactical fighter in the Free World today the F5 serves its users well in the defense of National Security when compared to contemporary aircraft the lightweight tiger 2 is a dog fighter without equal in the air combat Arena where the battle for Air Supremacy is fought our mission is to emulate a thread aircraft in all facets philosophy tactics maneuverability difficulty to see turning performance and as close as we can get to what we think the most representative threat is that our forces are going to have to fight it's extensive training concentrated in the airto air Arena that's what it's all about and it's very effective the ultimate and final truth in dog fight capability is actual combat short of that dissimilar air combat training is a Proving Ground where fighter pilots fly their aircraft to the outer limits of design and performance goals approving ground for both men and machines in this challenging environment the f5e is right at home I got it okay I've got him I've got him you got L overhead overhead okay I'm with between you now left side might be I got him I got him I got him minutes you still chasing that okay 700 I'm the right off right's still left turn are you indeed I got a my 4:00 you watch them okay come High left up left come big left fo fo right roll right H roll right roll right and SCE Thunder you got an F14 at your 5:00 arounds he eight okay I got him wall 106 down got two your coming with you in the turn okay we got yeah you got one that's going to die track in track in track in the F4 the left hand turn Oh What a Beautiful shot going to try to get a gunshot this F14 there's a guns on the F14 shot [Applause] 1200 [Applause] usar left with its agility turning performance and maneuverability the tiger 2 is more than a match for the the majority of Frontline Fighters found throughout the world the F5 tiger 2 truly a cat for dog [Music] fighting that's a Kill