Airforces

It’ll be like, ‘There is a mountain here and it

will be hard to visually acquire me. So I’m

going to hide right here, because it worked

in the past.’ And usually that works out –

it is a little bit of an unfair advantage.”

While the advantage of local terrain might

weight the fight in favour of Red Air, the terms

of fighting are almost never equal. LT Corky

continued: “More often than not it’s what the

navy F/A-18 aircrew are going to face. They

are going to be over enemy territory where the

enemy will know their own terrain very well and,

while our own aircrew will have an idea of what’s

there, they won’t know it as well as the enemy.”

The result gives the aviators the feeling

of being over real enemy territory, and this

is one of the most important goals of the

‘Saints’. “That’s our goal – we want to be as

real-world as possible,” LT Corky added.

The F-5 adversary community

The ‘Saints’ are not alone in flying the

F-5 in the adversary role in the US. Two

sibling squadrons fly the Tiger II in the

same role: VFC-111 ‘Sundowners’ at NAS

Key West, Florida, and Marine Fighter

Training Squadron (VMFT) 401 ‘Snipers’ at

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.

The ‘Sundowners’ and ‘Saints’ also share

their history, as LT Corky observed: “VFC-111

was born out of VFC-13. Originally, there was

only VFC-13 at Fallon. Then VFC-13 started

doing deployments to Key West. When many

of the bases, airspaces and ranges closed on

the east coast, it made more sense for the

east coast squadrons to deploy down to Key

West. There is a lot of good range space there.

“Key West started to be utilised a lot

more, so we had to put more F-5s down

there. Then the deployment became

permanent, with VFC-13 Fallon, and VFC-

13 Key West. Eventually, that got a little bit

painful and they decided to designate that

squadron VFC-111 ‘Sundowners’, with a

new commanding officer, executive officer

and complete new command down there.”

All three units have the same task – to

provide adversary training for naval aviators

in the US – and all fly the same aircraft, in

the same configuration. As a result, they

end up exchanging airframes from time to

time. “We are kind of the same unit, but

[VMFT-401] are a little bit different,” said LT

Corky. “They are the marines while we are

the navy, so there is a little bit of difference

there. But they still fly the same airplane.”

F-5N Tiger II

The F-5N flown by the ‘Saints’ is not a

regular F-5. With modifications to simulate

different threats, an internal jamming pod and

the weapons-carrying ability removed, it is

designed to excel in the role of virtual bogey.

Even though its design dates from the

late 1950s, with no radar and limited thrust

and turning capabilities compared with the

Hornet, it still has much to offer, as LT Corky

explained: “It’s a small aircraft, so it doesn’t

have a lot of gas, so it can’t burn a lot. It’s

48 // JANUARY 2018 #358 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com

Left top: F-5N 761545 carries the typical Red

Air load-out of captive CATM-9L training

missile (starboard wingtip) and an Air Combat

Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI) pod. Søren

Nielsen Right: A gaggle of ‘Saints’ aggressors

heads out for a mission. F-5N 761535 is nearest

the camera. Søren Nielsen Left below: F-5N

761564 basks in the Nevada sun. Maintenance

of these pristine jets is carried out by around

100 experienced former US Navy and Marine

Corps technicians. Søren Nielsen Below: As well

as its 13 single-seat F-5Ns, VFC-13 operates a

single example of the two-seat F-5F, 761580. The

‘Saints’ fl eet is slightly smaller than that of sister

unit VFC-111, which has 17 F-5Ns and an F-5F.

Søren Nielsen

VFC-13