According to South Korean media reports, the South Korean Air Force issued a notice on January 11. At 13:44 on the same day, an F-5E fighter jet of the South Korean Air Force crashed when taking off from Suwon base in Gyeonggi Province, and the pilot died. F-5E fighter is a light fighter introduced from the United States and assembled and produced by South Korea in the 1970s. Since 2000, 12 South Korean fighters have crashed. F-5E fighter (data figure). "Tiger" flying all over the world The F-5E fighter is an important model in the F-5 fighter family. The F-5 is a light supersonic fighter developed by Northrop in the 1950s, nicknamed "tiger". This fighter is famous for its low price and easy maintenance. It was originally planned to replace the F-86 "Saber" fighter, but in fact, the U.S. air force is only equipped with a small amount, mainly because its simple avionics equipment and thin weapon system are difficult to meet the needs of the U.S. air force. The aircraft is not equipped with radar. It has only two aerial guns and two short-range infrared guided air-to-air missiles. It can only carry out air operations within visual range. In contrast, the F-4 "ghost" heavy air control fighter favored by the US air force at that time can carry four semi-active radar guided medium-range air-to-air missiles and four short-range infrared guided air-to-air missiles, with far more firepower than the former, and can carry out over the horizon air combat. However, heavy fighters are not needed for many countries. At that time, light fighters represented by Soviet MiG-21 and French "phantom" III were very popular in the international market and brought huge profits to their manufacturers. In order to seize the market, the United States decided to push the F-5 fighter to the international market. Therefore, it specially designed and manufactured the F-5E fighter as a military aid fighter to provide its allies. The crash sounded the alarm South Korea has purchased 126 F-5E fighters and 20 f-5f combat trainers. In 1980, the Korean Airlines military aircraft factory signed a contract with Northrop to produce 233 such fighters and engines for its air force in South Korea. With the deployment of this light fighter, the South Korean Air Force has become an important air force in Northeast Asia. Nevertheless, the F-5E fighter still has obvious defects. The aircraft has an old design and is only equipped with short-range air-to-air missiles. It can not adapt to the modern battlefield dominated by medium-range air combat. After 2000, F-5E fighters gradually withdrew from the front line and turned to air to ground close support missions. Even so, the future of this type of aircraft is still bleak, and repeated crash accidents have sounded the alarm. To this end, South Korea launched fa-50 light multipurpose fighter to replace F-5E / F fighter. In 2010, the South Korean Air Force said it would eliminate all F-5E / F fighters and replace them with fa-50 fighters around 2020. However, the radar, missile and other key components of fa-50 fighter are imported from the United States and Europe, which leads to the fact that the mass production process of fa-50 fighter is not smooth. Today, the F-5E / F fighter is an old "tiger", but it has to serve in the Korean Air Force for an extended period. (outlook new era)