May 1, 2002 at 12:19 pm
I don’t have much info on this but I do know that Greece has retired all of her F-5A’s from service (to be replaced with F-16C Block-52 I think…).
Are these just being put in storage or are they going to be scrapped / sold off? I beleive most of them are still servicable and can carry Sidewinder AAM’s.
Vice versa, on the other side of the Aegean, I believe Turkey has retired some of her F-5’s and upgraded the rest locally. Anyone got any good info on this?
I have always considered the F-5 a major chip in the strategy war between Greece and Turkey, though during the cold war, i believe Turkey preferred the F-102 / F-104.
On this note, I have found nothing but contradiction on that famous incident in 1974, when 2 Greek F-5’s engaged a pair of Turkish F-102’s. Each side claims victory.
My source claims that the Turks fired first with an AIM-4 Falcon but this was evaded. There was some frisky dogfighting and a Greek F-5 managed to knock out an F-102 with a Sidewinder. The second F-102 was chased toward mainland Turkey until it ran out of fuel and crash landed.
Is this right? I have heard many other versions of this story.