The Northrop F-5 tactical fighter was designed as an extremely maneuverable, supersonic fighter with a high rate of reliability at a low operating cost. The F-5 first flew on July 30, 1959 with the first customer delivery in 1964. The last of more than 2,600 F-5’s was produced in 1989 and about two-thirds of these are still in service with 26 countries more than 4 decades later. The F-5 was manufactured by Northrop Grumman and under license
in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland.
Northrop Grumman F-5F Tiger II 160964 was originally manufactured as 75-0753 for the USAF. In 1976 10 F-5E and 3 F-5F aircraft were transferred to the USN Fighter Weapons School (NFWS) “Top Gun” located NAS Miramar. The school was used to train pilots in the finer techniques of aircraft combat flying. This aircraft was given a three-tone blue paint scheme with a white 46 painted on the side of the nose. In early 1990 the USMC wanted
used F-5s for their aggressor program so 160964 was transferred in March 1990.