Northrop RF-5A / RF-5E Tigereye
The reconnaissance F-5 — cameras in place of guns in a reshaped nose · First flight 1968 (RF-5A) · 1979 (RF-5E Tigereye)
The RF-5A was the tactical reconnaissance version of the F-5A, with a nose holding four cameras. It first flew in May 1968 and Northrop built 86; Norway took 16 and Iran 15, and further examples went to Morocco and other F-5 users. Spain flew its own CASA-built reconnaissance Freedom Fighters.
The RF-5E Tigereye applied the same idea to the more powerful F-5E Tiger II, with a longer nose that took interchangeable camera and sensor pallets. The testbed, 71-1420, flew on 29 January 1979. Only 12 were built — two for Malaysia and ten for Saudi Arabia, whose deliveries began in January 1985.
Singapore took a different route: in 1990–91 it converted eight of its own F-5Es to the RF-5E standard, later redesignating them RF-5S.
