DEFENSE/Taiwan holds ceremony at Hualien Air Base to mark retirement of F-5s

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) A ceremony was held Friday at Hualien Air Base to mark the official retirement of the Air Force's F-5 series jets after more than 50 years of patrolling Taiwan's skies.

The event began with the 5th Tactical Fighter Wing flying a sortie consisting of three RF-5E reconnaissance aircraft and two F-5F fighter jets.

After a brief ceremonial flight around the Hualien base and Taiwan's east coast, the planes were showered with a water salute upon their return.

Colonel Hsu Chun-jung (許俊榮), who was among the pilots that took part in the sortie, reported back to Vice Defense Minister Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) saying "mission accomplished."

In his speech at the ceremony, Po said the Air Force was retiring all of the remaining active F-5F fighter jets and RF-5E reconnaissance aircraft, which were converted from F-5E jets by the Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing in 1997.

The F5-E fighter jets, which were the backbone of the F-5 fleet, were retired in 2023.

"Their retirement today symbolizes an end to the F-5 era," he said, adding that their missions will be taken over by the RF-16 aircraft in the future.

Speaking to reporters after the sortie, Hsu said that despite being the plane's last patrol, the mission was carried out flawlessly.

Although the RF-5Es are now retired, they have preserved many valuable reconnaissance images of Taiwan, he said.

Earlier this week, retired Air Force Colonel Sung Wen-hsi (宋文溪) described the Northrop F-5E/F, a variant of the supersonic light fighter known as the Tiger II, as a formidable jet back in the day.

Before the 1995 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Republic of China Air Force was quite powerful and routinely carried out reconnaissance patrols over the airspace of Kinmen and Matsu islands, Sung told CNA in an interview.

At the time, the Air Force even demonstrated "a show of power" by flying patrol missions close to China's coastline, the retired F-5E/F pilot said.

Huang Yang-te (黃揚德), also a retired colonel, said the Air Force back then found ways to equip the F-5E/F fighters with various capabilities to fulfill combat readiness missions, citing for example that some single-seat F-5Es could even launch Maverick missiles.

Taiwan's Air Force began operating F-5A/B fighter jets in 1965.

In 1973, Taiwan partnered with the American aircraft manufacturer, Northrop Corp., to produce the F-5E model domestically under what became known as the Tiger Peace Project. The first Taiwan-built F-5E rolled out the following year.

Taiwan manufactured a total of 308 jets under the project, including 242 single-seat F-5Es and 66 twin-seat F-5Fs.

The F-5 served as Taiwan's main combat aircraft from the 1970s through the 1990s before being reassigned for training purposes.

The F-5E/F jets ended their training role as the Air Force continued receiving Brave Eagle jet trainers developed under Taiwan's indigenous aircraft program.