Thursday 26 December 2019

Shenyang J-5, various users

The Shenyang J-5 was used not just by North Vietnam, but by many other countries all around the globe.

  • Somalia: Many F-5s were serving with the Somalian Air Corps and were lost in 1977 during the Ogaden War. 
  • Sudan: The Sudanese Air Force received some F-5s, together with some MiG-17s, after achieving independence in the mid-1950s. They were mainly used for ground attack missions against rebels with limited air defences. 
  • Tanzania: It's known that the Tanzanian Air Force used F-5s for ground attack missions during the Uganda-Tanzania War in 1977-1978. They were bought shortly after independence in 1961. 
  • Zimbabwe: Some of the first fighters in the Zimbabwe Air Force were F-5s which were piloted by Pakistani pilots. They were acquired in the 1970s, after having declared independence and nowadays they're not in the active role no more. As we couldn't find pictures of the F-5 under Zimbabwean use, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
  • Albania: After the Soviet-Albanian split in 1961, the Albanian government sought for new military suppliers, so they turned their heads to China, who sold them loads of armament during the 1960s. Among the first military aid sold to Albania there were F-5 jets. They were kept in active use wheel until April 1999 when they were deployed in the north against the Yugoslav Air Incursion. The role of the F-5 was relatively unsuccessful due to its subsonic speed, and the aircraft were soon relegated once the Shenyang F-6 (the Chinese version of the Soviet MiG-19) was available, so the F-5 was put into storage.
  • United States of America: In the 1980s the United States bought a number of J-5 aircraft, together with some FT-2 trainers from China via the Combat Core Certification Professionals Company. Those aircraft were used in a "mobile threat" test program at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, operated by the 4477th "Red Hats" Test and Evaluation Squadron of the United States Air Force. Now are believed to be in storage.









Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-5
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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