Today’s SOFREP Pic of the Day shows the last moment of an American-built Northrop F-5E Tiger II light fighter jet from the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIAF) before it was destroyed by an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike on Dezful Airport on June 22, 2025.
Be sure to watch the full kinetic action below on X:
June 22, 2025. Dezful, Iran. Somewhere on that sunbaked runway, a relic from the Shah’s playbook breathed its last in a puff of smoke and drone-fired fury. The Iranian Air Force’s Northrop F-5E Tiger II—now scrap metal, a ghost of Cold War deals past, finally brought to ground in a world it no longer belonged to.
Today’s SOFREP Pic of the Day shows the last moment of an American-built Northrop F-5E Tiger II light fighter jet from the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIAF) before it was destroyed by an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike on Dezful Airport on June 22, 2025.
Be sure to watch the full kinetic action below on X:
June 22, 2025. Dezful, Iran. Somewhere on that sunbaked runway, a relic from the Shah’s playbook breathed its last in a puff of smoke and drone-fired fury. The Iranian Air Force’s Northrop F-5E Tiger II—now scrap metal, a ghost of Cold War deals past, finally brought to ground in a world it no longer belonged to.
The F-5: Born American, Raised in Iran
The F-5E Tiger II was never meant to be glamorous. It was the scrappy underdog of the U.S. fighter arsenal in the 1960s—cheap, export-friendly, and rugged enough for the rough-and-tumble of Third World air forces. It was born out of the need for a low-cost, lightweight supersonic jet that American allies could fly without needing the Pentagon’s deep pockets or Top Gun-level maintenance crews.
When the Shah of Iran went on his 1970s shopping spree—desperate to turn Iran into the “policeman of the Gulf”—he bought into the F-5 program hard. The United States delivered over 100 of the aircraft, both the F-5A/B and later the more advanced F-5E/F Tiger II variants. Iran didn’t just fly them—they built them under license. That’s how deep in the game they were. Northrop sent the blueprints, and the Iranians set up factories at places like the HESA facility in Isfahan.
Then came 1979. The Islamic Revolution flipped the table, and suddenly those U.S.-supplied F-5s were in the hands of a regime that Washington despised. But Iran, ever the improvisers, kept them flying—through war with Iraq, through sanctions, through decades of isolation.
Dezful Strike: The Tiger’s Final Runway
On June 22, an Israeli strike hit Dezful Airport in western Iran. The airfield, long rumored to double as a staging ground for Iranian drone and missile operations, was caught red-handed. Satellite imagery and infrared footage captured what looks like an F-5E going up in flames—wings ripped off, fuselage cracked like a beer can under a boot.
The Israeli Air Force, with an alleged assist from Mossad-fed intelligence, have taken the gloves off, targeting Iranian supply nodes. Dezful wasn’t random—it was strategic.
The Old Guard Burns
That downed F-5 wasn’t just hardware. It was a symbol. A reminder of the schizophrenic history of U.S.–Iranian relations. We armed them to the teeth. Then we watched them turn those same teeth on the region. And now, fifty years later, those same planes—built with American engineering, maintained with duct tape and black-market parts—are being reduced to molten debris by Iranian adversaries.
In its heyday, the F-5 was a reliable jet. Agile. Quick. Not fancy, but fierce in the right hands. It flew combat in Vietnam, in Africa, over the Gulf. But that was then. Now it’s little more than a target.
And somewhere in the smoke and heat rising off Dezful, history smirked.
COMMENTS
There are
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.