Iran Copies U.S. Aircraft & Blue Angels’ Paint Scheme

Meet Iran’s new fighter (The DEW Line)

Iran today has released the most impressive images yet of the Saegheh (“lightning”) fighter: a Northrop F-5 modified with a V-tail. The images came from a public flight test at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.

Yeah, it’s a re-worked F-5. I don’t know if they built it new or just reconstructed the empennage, but it’s nothing all that impressive to me. Heck, we’ve got private companies in the U.S. flying into space! If anyone wants an F-5 (original version, not Iran-ized), go check out Thornton Aircraft in California. If I ever win the Power Ball, they’re one of my first stops !

I’m personally not worried about this jet in the hands of Iran and I seriously doubt that anyone in the U.S. armed forces are worried about them, either. The F-5 is an old design which is still used by U.S. forces to simulate MiGs in aggressor squadrons. It’s not known for its turning ability, but it is quite hard to see according to most pilot accounts. I’m sure radar would have no problem picking it up, so an AIM-120 AMRAAM would finish it off from long range without much trouble.

I don’t know why Iran chose to emulate the Blue Angels’ paint scheme so closely (down to the script writing near the nose). Maybe they’re paying homage to the F/A-18 Hornet which the Blue Angels fly as the Saegheh and Hornet share a similar tail structure. Maybe it’s because emulating the color scheme of the U.S. demo team who flew a close relative of the F-5 from which the Saegheh was derived would require too much red, white and blue. Of course, it could be that they used as much original thought in designing the paint scheme as they did in designing the aircraft .

I wonder what Lex would think of this as he’s flown both the F-5 and the F/A-18 for the U.S. Navy?

UPDATE: Looks like Lex has made his opinion known !

UPDATE #2: Trackback sent to Steeljaw Scribe for his Open Trackbacks post .