Combat aircraft

A

SHRILL SIREN

REVERBERATES through

the corridors of a squadron

building as a pilot, clutching

his  ying gloves but already

kitted out in g-suit and

survival vest, sprints to his armed and

pre- ighted F-5EM Tiger II on alert

status. With helmet on and the engines

spooling up, the pilot receives clearance

data and target details from operations

as the maintainers complete the  nal

external inspections, and the caps are

removed from the live Python IV missiles

on the wingtips. Within  ve minutes the

pilot is climbing out of Anápolis air base

en route to the Brazilian capital, Brasília

— a 125km dash that will take less than

nine minutes.

This is the primary focus of the

Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira

— FAB)’s 1º Grupo de Defesa Aérea (1º

GDA, 1st Air Defense Group) ‘Jaguar’.

When the FAB retired its last Mirage

IIID/Es on December 31, 2005, it raised

a signi cant concern relating to the

air defense of Brasília, which had been

the responsibility of Dassault  ghters

since 1973. Age had taken its toll on

the ageing French deltas, and it was

For 40 years, the strategically important Brazilian Air Force (FAB) base at Anápolis housed Dassault deltas, in the

form of Mirage IIID/Es and then Mirage 2000C/Bs. However, in 2014 they made way for upgraded F-5EM Tigers.

REPORT AND PHOTOS Santiago Rivas and João Paulo Moralez

This image: An F-5EM

Tiger II of 1° GDA in

fl ight, fi tted only with

a centerline drop tank.

Rodrigo Cozzato

Inset: A 1° GDA F-5EM

pilot taxies out at

Anápolis.

João Paulo Moralez

58 March 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

58-62 Brazil F-5 C.indd 58 19/01/2018 11:07