‘MiG-28’

Remember the mysterious “MiG 28” that Lt. Pete Mitchell spotted in TOP GUN ? Well it was actually a Northrop F-5 Tiger, which Hollywood painted black to make it look like an advanced enemy fighter. Convenient, since the Navy used F-5s as adversary aircraft at the Naval Fighter Weapons School — the real-life TOPGUN. Since these nimble jets were both cheap to make and operate, they served as fighters for numerous foreign Air Forces and continue flying as adversarial missions for American military pilots to this day.

The Tiger pictured above (Bureau Number 761579) was one of several F-5s that the Marine Corps picked up after their retirement from the Swiss Air Force. BuNo 761579 has been flying with the Marines since 2006, and this year will be reunited with 22 of its fellow Swiss Tigers. The U.S. Navy has purchased 22 more of the low-hour Tigers from the Swiss, which will be soon be on their way to the States.

American aggressor squadrons have been operating Tigers since the 1970s, and they have many more years of dogfights left in them. Not bad for an air frame that was developed in the 1950s.

While we are on the subject of Navy and Marine Corps aggressor squadrons, the United States leased a couple dozen Kfir C.1 fighters from Israel in the 1980s for dissimilar air combat maneuver training. These were assigned to VMFT-401 and Fighter Squadron 43 (VF-43) and returned to Israel in 1988.

Featured image: more ex-Swiss Tigers currently serving with VMFT-401