“Can the F-5 land on aircraft carriers?” The title of the article may surprise some, but believe it or not, it is a frequent question for a good part of our readers. It is also common to see some discussions on the subject on social networks, and the release of the film Top Gun: Maverick, in May also made the subject “resurface”.
The reason behind the question is quite simple: the F-5, like a number of other fighters, has a tail hook. The device is, in parts, similar to that found on naval fighters, such as the F / A-18 Super Hornet, the Chinese J-15 and the legendary F-14 Tomcat. However, the tail hook of conventional aircraft is quite different from naval ones.
On embarked aircraft, the hook serves to “fish” one of the three or four steel cables that cross the runway of an aircraft carrier, slowing down the aircraft over a very short distance. For this, not only the hook, but the structure of the aircraft as a whole needs to be prepared to withstand the true “controlled accidents” that are boarded landings, something thought from the conception of the naval aircraft project.
In the case of planes operating on kilometric runways at bases and airports, the tail hook is used exclusively in emergency landings. The principle is the same: capture a cable lying on the runway. However, landing on land is very, if not completely, different from the procedure on an aircraft carrier.
In addition to the F-5, fighters such as the F-15, F-16, AMX, Eurofighter Typhoon and even the 35th Generation F-5 have the hook for emergency landings. With this explanation, we return to the initial question: can the F-5 land on aircraft carriers, in a hypothetical emergency situation, for example? The short answer is no, but there is a catch.
Recently Captain André Justo, F-5 pilot of the Brazilian Air Force, published on his channel Brazilian Fighter Aviation a video of simulator DCS World, landing an F-5E on the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Not only that, he also took off from the ship. It should be noted that although DCS is among the most advanced aviation simulators available, it is still a game anyway.
In real life, this would possibly have catastrophic consequences. As previously mentioned, the structure of a naval aircraft is prepared to withstand the harsh conditions of onboard operations. The F-5, however, was never designed to do this type of thing, which could cause serious structural damage to the aircraft, especially in the landing gear assembly, which in naval aircraft is among the most reinforced components precisely to absorb the impact on landing.
Four years ago, during Exercise CRUZEX 2018, a FAB F-5EM made a hard landing at Natal Air Force Base. The “blow”, lighter than that of a boarded landing, was enough to break the wingtip rails, where the short-range air-to-air missiles are fitted.
So no, the F-5 would not be able to land on an aircraft carrier. However, some F-5s have already boarded such a ship on a special occasion.
With the end of the Vietnam War, several South Vietnamese servicemen fled with US-supplied planes, including a number of F-5E Tiger II fighters. In 1975, after the withdrawal of the US in Operation Frequent Wind, the aircraft carrier USS Midway was loaded with F-5 fighters, A-37 attack jets, single-engine Cessna Bird Dog and helicopters. Chinook, Sea King and Huey, nearly 140 aircraft that were in Thailand to avoid capture by the communist side. Sea Stallion helicopters carried the aircraft to the aircraft carrier, which then departed for the US base on Guam in the Pacific Ocean.
